


Storms of Fate

by AriesOnMars



Series: How to Train Your Berserker [3]
Category: Dragons: Riders of Berk (Cartoon)
Genre: Drug Use, M/M, Post Season 2, Slash, Slow Build
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-13
Updated: 2015-01-30
Packaged: 2018-02-12 23:29:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 37
Words: 62,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2128482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AriesOnMars/pseuds/AriesOnMars
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hiccup struggles to find a place for Berk's newest resident, the former berserker chief Dagur. All of Hiccup's effort to make him feel at home convinces Dagur that the dragon rider has a deeper motive for keeping his former enemy close--and he might be right.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

"Careful! You just got the splint off, you don't want to have to wear it again, do you?"

 

"Oh go mother a dragon like that or something," Dagur grumbled and rubbed over the sturdy bandage still on his arm. It had been nearly a month since he was first brought to Berk--or at least that's how long he thought it had been. For him the time passed weirdly while he was drinking and taking whatever Gothi gave him, either from her own knowledge or from instructions his sister, Nott, had left before she departed. He'd doze off and find out it was two days later when he'd finally wake up, or he'd go to sleep at night and be up in an hour while it was still dark outside. The poisons in his system had finally been flushed out, though, and his arm had healed enough to replace the splint with a wrapped bandage hardened with plaster. It was easier to move, lighter, but it itched worse and it felt like Dagur was _so close_ to finally being healed fully that if he just got it off he'd be fine.

 

It wasn't true, he knew it wasn't true, but he still had the urge to rip it off anyway. He just had to try to smother it because it felt like any time he even _thought_ about moving his arm or getting the plaster off Hiccup would be there and whining at him.

 

"Dragons can take care of themselves," Hiccup said and he just reached over to yank Dagur's hand off of his cast. " _You_ can't."

 

"I'm fine!" Dagur snapped at him. At some point during his illness he'd lost the ability to make Hiccup flinch just by getting loud enough. Now the viking just gave him a dull I'm-waiting-for-you-to-settle-down look every time he tried.

 

"Of course you're fine. That's why we're out here, you're going to learn to do something other than stab things so you can earn your keep," Hiccup gestured around the empty land. "You live on farmland. You're going to at least learn how to weed."

 

"I didn't pick to live here," Dagur growled. It was true, he had just been put there, and as he healed it became apparent that the former berserker was staying and nobody had really thought of a better place to put him. Mildew's old hut was out of the way, far from the village, and while it was a hike--or a short flight--it wasn't so far that Dagur couldn't be checked up on now and then.

 

"Yeah, I know, but you live here now," Hiccup said. "Come on, this is land that hasn't really been farmed since Mildew left. It's too far away for someone to want to trek up here every day, but nobody can stay here since you're already here. Besides, if you start providing food for the village my dad might warm up to you. Maybe."

 

"No he won't," Dagur glared at Hiccup. After a moment Hiccup sighed.

 

"Alright, fine, he won't. But he won't be able to say you need to get out of Berk if you're doing something helpful," Hiccup offered, and when Dagur didn't immediately huff and growl he took it as a good sign. "So what do you want to grow? Cabbage does fairly well out here."

 

"Elgh," Dagur made a face. "I hate cabbage."

 

"How about onions?" Hiccup tried again, and he got another glare. "Well what do you like for food?"

 

"Meat."

 

Hiccup grumbled and buried his face in his hand, "You're just being difficult on purpose. I'm not letting you take care of something alive, mostly because I'm pretty sure you _can't_ take care of something alive."

 

"Fine, then I'll butcher it. I don't have to take care of something to know how to cut it up," Dagur said.

 

"Did you miss the part about learning to do something other than stab things? Or are you just ignoring it?" Hiccup snapped at him.

 

"Ignoring it," Dagur shrugged. This wasn't a new argument. Hiccup had said that Dagur could hunt on the island, but only boar, and that had made Dagur determined to do nothing but that. The only problem with that plan was that nobody was going to let an injured person join their hunting party and Hiccup wasn't going to let Dagur go out alone. So for the past couple of days Hiccup had been trying to convince Dagur to tend to the land he lived on, either with a gentle nudge or suggestions or making plans and just waiting for Dagur to show some sign of interest. Since that hadn't happened Hiccup was being more direct this time, and he grabbed Dagur's uninjured wrist to try to haul him to the field.

 

"You're at least helping me get the weeds out," Hiccup said and he strained to keep pulling Dagur after him. After the first couple of steps Hiccup didn't have surprise on his side, Dagur had dug his boots into the ground and with most of his strength back he wasn't about to go anywhere he didn't want to go.

 

"I don't _want_ to."

 

"Too bad! You owe me and this is what I want you to do!" Hiccup yelled back at him. The smaller boy paused after he said it, not quite wincing at the words but close to it. He hadn't brought up that he'd essentially bought Dagur from his sisters since, well, since it had happened. It didn't seem like the best way to keep Dagur relatively content to remind him he was either a pet or a slave depending on what Hiccup felt like treating him as. And Hiccup had the feeling that even if he did bring it up as often as he could it wouldn't have an impact on the other boy for long, so it was best to just not rely on it too much.

 

"Fine," Dagur growled and yanked his hand back from Hiccup. They went to the field with less arguing and pulling after that although Dagur was obviously sulking. Toothless had been roaming around in the field and looked up when they came. Even if it affected him badly he was still trying to find the Dragon Root when he could. The lack of aggression when the Night Fury trotted over to his rider and headbutted Hiccup's belly for attention meant that it hadn't grown back yet, though.

 

"Dragons can help with things like this sometimes, but Dragon Root's grown up here before," Hiccup explained as he looked over to Dagur. "We can't risk them finding it if it grows back and hurting someone or themselves."

 

Dagur just shrugged as he looked around the field. It was mostly intact even with the disuse, the rows weren't prominent but they were still there, and the boulders had been hauled out of the ground some time ago so it was mostly flat and even. It wasn't great, but it was a lot better than it could have been. After too long of Dagur just staring at the dirt and weeds around them Hiccup let out a loud, frustrated sound. "Look, I get it, you don't--"

 

"Which ones are weeds?"

 

Hiccup paused and looked at Dagur. He actually seemed... confused. He looked angry too, but Dagur always looked angry or insane.

 

"You really haven't done something like this before?" Hiccup asked. Dagur shook his head. "You never even watched someone else?"

 

"Nothing grew in Berserk. There wasn't anything to farm, or anywhere to farm it," Dagur said and he kicked at a greenish-yellowish clump of grass in the plot.

 

"Oh. Well, just watch me and do what I do," Hiccup said and he knelt down to start yanking up the plants. "Try to get all of it, even the root. Sometimes if you don't pull the root out it just grows back."

 

Dagur watched him for a little while, and right when Hiccup was ready to turn around and tell him to stop stalling the former berserker knelt down and starting pulling up whatever plant was closest to him. Hiccup smiled a little and looked back to his own work, digging some in the dirt to yank up a large, gnarled root. Toothless had sat down near them and as the boys tended to the field the dragon got up and started digging in the dirt with them. He didn't quite understand that Hiccup and Dagur were pulling out the plants they didn't want there but Hiccup still laughed.

 

"Looks like Toothless wants to help," Hiccup looked over to Dagur with a grin. Since Hiccup had relaxed around the bigger and more psychotic boy Toothless had too. The Night Fury might not trust Dagur for a long, long while, but without Hiccup acting like Dagur was a threat Toothless was more willing to just ignore him when he was around.

 

"What's this?" Dagur yanked up something that didn't really look like anything he or Hiccup had been pulling up before. Hiccup scooted closer and leaned in to look at it.

 

"Oh, it's a beet."

 

Dagur was quiet for a moment as he looked down to the round root, then moved to put it back where he had pulled it up from. He piled and patted the dirt back in place, and when he noticed Hiccup watched him he bristled, "I like beets."

 

"So you want to grow beets, then?"

 

"No."

 

"That sounded like a yes to me."

 

"That was the exact opposite of a yes."

 

Hiccup went back to his own digging with a grin, careful to put back any other beets he found along the way although there didn't seem to be many of them. After a moment Dagur let out a small chuckle and resumed his work too.


	2. Chapter 2

Dagur looked over the loose pages spread out on the table in front of him, moving them occasionally just to see what the one under it said, and after a few minutes he shrugged. "That's it. That's pretty much everything I know."

 

"Pretty much?" Hiccup reached and started taking the papers back to reorganize them, getting everything back into order since a few pages needed to be read together to make sense.

 

"The rest is just legends and rope training."

 

"What kind of legends?" Hiccup wrapped the bundle of papers with a length of twine to keep them all together and set them aside on the table. That usually meant he was done with whatever he was doing and Toothless came over to nudge Hiccup and butt his nose against the rider until he was given the attention he wanted.

 

"That they'd have freak babies sometimes," Dagur said. He watched the two of them before grumbling and moved farther away from the Night Fury to sit at the only chair that was actually placed at the table. "There were stories that after raids Skrill were left alone on the beaches of conquered enemies. They'd eat the dead."

 

"Elgh," Hiccup made a face and moved to hug Toothless close. "You wouldn't eat people, would you, bud?"

 

Toothless made a loud, eager sound at the question and rubbed his nose against Hiccup's cheek.

 

"I think that's a yes," Dagur smirked.

 

"And I think you're an idiot who can't understand dragons. So what does eating... uh. What does that have to do with freak babies?"

 

"I don't know. All I know is the story that said one time a female Skrill was left alone to eat and afterwards she laid eggs that didn't look right, and the hatchlings weren't Skrill."

 

"What were they?" Hiccup frowned. Normally the different types of dragons only breed with their own type, but on the rare occasions when two different types of dragons mated there weren't eggs.

 

"Don't know," Dagur said. "No one does. The story went that the Skrill was released and she took her clutch somewhere else, and after that for almost two years there wasn't a lightning storm anywhere around."

 

"That's lucky."

 

"Not if you use lightning to fight," Dagur huffed and moved to scoot his chair away from Toothless when the dragon circled around Hiccup. "Make it stay put."

 

"What, Toothless? He's fine, he just gets restless," Hiccup rubbed the dragon's neck. "You should try to be nice to him."

 

"Why should I?"

 

"Because if you're nice he might start being nice too," Hiccup sighed. "Besides, you pretty much owe him for the whole you not being dead thing."

 

Dagur grumbled and looked away, and if he had been able to he would have crossed his arms.

 

"Try petting him," Hiccup offered.

 

"I like having at least one hand."

 

"Just shut up and come over here," Hiccup said firmer than before. He didn't want to deal with Dagur acting up when Toothless was around--although Dagur seemed to act up all the time so that may have just been how he normally was anyway. After giving himself time to grumble and huff and roll his eyes Dagur finally got up from the chair and came closer, and he stopped when Toothless started growling.

 

"Yeah, this is going great. Really," Dagur glared at Hiccup. "If you want to get rid of me now that you have everything on the Skrill just do it, don't make me act like an idiot so your dragon kills me."

 

"Trust me, I don't need to _make_ you act like an idiot," Hiccup came between Toothless and Dagur and ignored the glare the other boy was giving him. He took Dagur's good hand and pulled it closer to Toothless, although he paused when the dragon tensed and lowered his head. "Just put your hand over mine and try to be less, you know. You. Pretend you're pleasant."

 

"I can be pleasant," Dagur growled and bared his teeth.

 

"That's really convincing," Hiccup rolled his eyes and waited until Dagur did as he was told. He didn't reach for Toothless' nose, he was pretty sure Dagur would get snapped at for that no matter what, even with Hiccup's hand in front of his. Instead he went to pet over Toothless' neck slowly enough that Dagur could keep his hand on top of Hiccup's. Slowly Toothless seemed to relax and Hiccup pulled his hand away gently. "Now try alone. Just be nice."

 

"I'm a warrior, stop telling me to be nice," Dagur huffed.

 

"So is Astrid, but she's not punching things _all_ the time," Hiccup tried hard not to snap it at Dagur. Toothless responded to Hiccup, and if Hiccup was getting tense and loud at Dagur then Toothless wouldn't let himself be touched by him.

 

Dagur just looked at Hiccup for a while, "If you expect me to believe that you really do think I'm an idiot."

 

"Oh just shut up and pet the dragon," Hiccup grumbled. Dagur moved to put his hand where Hiccup's had been and touched the Night Fury carefully and very lightly, ready to jump back and away from Toothless if he had to. After a moment of nothing he started stroking over the shiny black scales, although both Toothless and Dagur were visibly tense at the action.

 

"There, I did it," Dagur pulled his hand back with a jolt as he said it, and Toothless jerked his head down with a low growl at the sudden movement.

 

"See? Just give him time," Hiccup said as he went to calm Toothless down and get him relaxed once more.

 

"For what?"

 

"To get used to you. He already didn't try to bite you, that's an improvement."

 

Dagur watched the two of them for a moment, not sure if he should try to do anything while the dragon rider was calming the Night Fury back down. It seemed to be working, though, after a bit Toothless stopped staring at Dagur like he was trying to decide if he should blast him anyway.

 

"I guess so..." Dagur mumbled and looked to the table and the bundle of tied up papers still there, then back to Hiccup. "Now what? I gave you what you wanted, do I get a boat to leave the island or do you just toss me out into the woods?"

 

"I don't know," Hiccup admitted and sighed, he settled his arm around Toothless when the dragon leaned against him. "That's a good reason to try to get a dragon to like you, though. They're pretty good judges of character."

 

"So should I get ready to be tossed out to sea since yours looks like it wants to bite me?" Dagur gestured to the Night Fury and Toothless huffed out a quiet bark at him in return.

 

"There's more dragons on Berk than Toothless. Gothi's Terrors liked you," Hiccup said, then paused. That... would actually be pretty good, a Terrible Terror had the potential to be dangerous, just like any dragon, but they were a lot smaller with a smaller amount of potential damage. Bigger dragons could shoo Terrors off if they were being a pest, so Dagur couldn't really set it on anyone--assuming he'd be able to even train it enough to do that. And most of the time they were pretty fussy, if they didn't like a place or a situation they'd just get up and leave, unlike some dragons that would stick around due to loyalty or obligation. "Let's get you a Terror."

 

"What? No. I don't want one," Dagur looked at Hiccup like he was the deranged one instead.

 

"Do you want to stay on Berk?"

 

"I don't have anywhere else to go," Dagur admitted and kicked at the chair he'd gotten out of.

 

"Pretty much everyone on Berk has a dragon. We'll get you one and you'll fit right in."

 

"Does it have to be a little one?"

 

"Yep. If you do good with the little one maybe you can have a big one," Hiccup said, then he paused and winced at what he had just promised. "Maybe. Probably not. Definitely not. You're not getting a bigger dragon."

 

But it fell on deaf ears. Dagur was already thinking of the types of dragons on Berk and what kind he'd want to own for the sort of destruction he liked to cause.


	3. Chapter 3

There wasn't any shortage of Terrible Terrors on Berk. They were pretty much everywhere, sleeping in barrels or hunkered on rooftops as they sunned, wandering around and stealing food whenever possible. The hard part was finding a Terror that wasn't already claimed by someone. Nearly every Terror in the village had attached to someone and followed them around, even if that person didn't want the little dragon scampering after them. Spitelout was one that weirdly got a lot of the tiny dragon's attention, whenever Snotlout's dad sat down to dinner in the great hall there'd be about three or four of them at a time sitting at the bench with him and occasionally patting him. The large viking didn't seem to be doing anything to encourage the attention, but he hadn't discouraged it either. Hiccup had sort of hoped that the same would happen to Dagur if the older boy wandered around enough, that some Terror would just start following Dagur around and attach to him.

 

So far it hadn't happened. Worse yet they were starting to get too much attention by having Dagur hanging around on the edges of the village and the former berserker was getting tense.

 

"Ok, this isn't working, let's go," Hiccup sighed. He wasn't hopeful any longer that some Terror would come up to Dagur like this when the guy looked like he was about to break something--or someone--just for the sake of doing it. "Maybe we can try to find a wild one tomorrow or something."

 

"Yeah, fine," Dagur grumbled and started out of the village to wander back up the hill. They didn't get too far before someone called out from behind them and Hiccup looked back.

 

"What are you doing here?" It was Astrid, and between the tone in her voice and the fact she wasn't carrying a weapon so she could threaten to put it in Dagur's skull Hiccup guessed she had just wandered by and seen them instead of someone sending for her to make the deranged kid go away.

 

"Looking for Terrors," Hiccup turned back to her and went down the hill to talk to her. Dagur just grumbled and leaned against the tree closest to him so he wouldn't have to join the two.

 

"Why?" Astrid looked to Dagur with narrowed eyes and then to Hiccup. "You're not going to give him a dragon, are you?"

 

"Not _give_ him one, just--I want to see if he can bond with one?" Hiccup stumbled a little over his own words, not really sure how to explain himself, "If he has a dragon--"

 

"If he has a dragon he'll try to eat it," Astrid finished for him. "Or worse. Or he'll make it set everything on fire, and _then_ eat it."

 

"It doesn't matter anyway, pretty much every dragon around the village is owned by someone and none of them want a new trainer," Hiccup sighed and crossed his arms. "Which... I guess that's a good thing. Dagur might try to do... something to one. Or he'd just make it mean. I just thought maybe if he could start liking dragons he could start fitting in."

 

"You want him to fit in?" Astrid asked, a little quieter now to make sure nobody was going to overhear them.

 

"Maybe. He's a good fighter, right? He'd be better on our side than against us."

 

"He tried to kill you."

 

"And I saved his life," Hiccup said it a little stronger than before and he moved to show her his palm. The cut Nott had made when she needed healthy blood for Dagur's medicine was finally starting to heal, and likely after a few years there wouldn't even be a scar anymore. Right now it was a good reminder to everyone--Dagur included--of what Hiccup had gone through for his own enemy. "He owes me. At least enough to try living on Berk without going crazy."

 

"I guess so," Astrid sighed and looked up at Dagur through her bangs, frowning as she thought. "You said he might make the Terror mean?"

 

"Yeah, he might. That's something I'd want to avoid, though," Hiccup answered.

 

"Then why don't you give him a mean one to start with? You could give him Little Snotlout."

 

"I could give him _who_?"

 

"Little Snotlout," Astrid said and looked back to him with a sigh. "You know, Snotlout's Terrible Terror? The one he couldn't train? The one that does nothing but bite everyone?"

 

"Oh. I didn't think he named it," Hiccup said. "Would he be alright with that?"

 

"Well he doesn't feed him or take care of him or even let him in his house, so I think Snotlout's stopped caring about him," Astrid shrugged and started back into town. "The Terror's usually in the great hall, he waits until someone gets a bowl of food and attacks their feet to make them drop it so he can eat."

 

"Are you sure we should give Dagur a dragon that'll bite him? He'll bite back," Hiccup started after Astrid and only paused to call over his shoulder to Dagur, telling the older boy to come with them.

 

"I think he'd probably like a dragon that'd bite him," Astrid shrugged, then grinned. "I'll at least like seeing him getting bitten."

 

\---

 

Like Astrid had said the purple Terrible Terror had been hiding out in the great hall, and when the three of them came in the little dragon slunk to hide under one of the tables as it eyed them. Hiccup had to point it out to Dagur and when the berserker finally saw the little dragon he grumbled again.

 

"That? You want me to have _that_?" Dagur glared at Hiccup as he said it.

 

"Of course. You'll love him!" Astrid smiled, and she had the scary ability to sound completely honest and cheerful as she was encouraging Dagur to take a dragon that was definitely going to bite him.

 

"Why? It's tiny," Dagur huffed.

 

"Yeah, but he's got a big personality," she said and she started walking to where the Terror was crouched. Dagur eyed Hiccup before he went to follow Astrid and he looked down to the crouched dragon under the table.

 

"It looks stupid," Dagur huffed and moved to prod the little dragon with his boot--and the Terror latched on and bit down as hard as he could on the leather. Hiccup winced and expected something awful, Dagur to yell or swear or kick at the dragon, but weirdly enough that didn't happen. None of it did. The boot was thick enough that the Terror was just gnawing on leather without being able to get down to the skin of Dagur's foot. Dagur dragged the little dragon out easily since he wasn't about to let go of the berserker's foot, even when he was being moved, and watched the little purple dragon pull and chew on the leather.

 

"...Alright," Dagur finally said and he looked to Astrid. "I guess I do like him."

 

"Really?" Hiccup couldn't help it. The dragon did nothing bit bite and Dagur actually _liked_ that? How were they supposed to bond, chew on each other?

 

"See? I told you you'd love him," Astrid managed to still sound convincing about that, although when Dagur looked back down to the little dragon she shrugged at Hiccup and looked just as confused as Hiccup felt. She didn't know why Dagur liked it either, she was just a little better at rolling with it.

 

"So what do I do, name it?" Dagur asked and looked at both of them. Astrid shrugged but this time Hiccup was the one who went with it a little easier.

 

"Yeah, just pick out a name that suits him." There wasn't a reason to mention that the little dragon already had a name. Dagur sat at the table and reached down to poke the Terror as it chewed on his boot. He got a growl in response and the little dragon narrowed his eyes, teeth sinking deeper into the leather.

 

"He's like a spring trap. How about Trapjaw," Dagur moved to rub his fingers under the little dragon's chin, the way Hiccup had showed him when petting Gothi's Terrible Terrors. The little purple dragon shifted and squirmed and eventually a muffled, weird purr started coming out of the place where the Terror's mouth was attached to Dagur's boot.

 

"I think he likes it," Hiccup said and he grinned a little. At least the biting wouldn't be a surprise later. He was still surprised Astrid was right, but glad for it. It looked like Dagur just needed a dragon as unpleasant as he was and Trapjaw was perfect for that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this a while ago before Rise of Berk came out and Snotlout's Terror was given a name. So I know it's Pain, but it seemed easier to just go with the name I had made earlier.


	4. Chapter 4

It was one of those times when it was best not to question why something was working out so well. Hiccup wasn't very good during those times, he always wanted to poke and prod and figure out why something was happening the way it was, even if that answer was just 'because the gods said so.' So when Dagur and Trapjaw actually seemed to be getting along fairly well it was weird and good and Hiccup shouldn't have bothered it, but he couldn't help but try to figure out why.

 

"So you seem to be getting along pretty well with him," Hiccup said as he watched Trapjaw trot along in Dagur's wake. It had been a few days, more than enough time for a dragon that already understood that humans weren't a threat to warm up to someone, but it was Dagur and the biting menace so Hiccup had assumed it would take years.

 

"You said it yourself. Dragons are good judges of character," Dagur grinned at him.

 

"Clearly not _all_ dragons," Hiccup rolled his eyes. Fine, this was what he wanted, but Dagur didn't have to rub it in so much. "Anyway, trader Johann is here and we can see if there's any seeds or bulbs that can be planted."

 

"Why are you still on about me farming? I have a dragon, I fit in, that should be enough," Dagur grumbled and looked down to the Terror. He clicked his tongue and the purple dragon chirped and flew up to land on Dagur's shoulder, perching and eyes narrowed like Trapjaw was deciding if he should try to do something unpleasant. Well, no, that wasn't fair. He had probably already decided to do something unpleasant and was just trying to figure out what that unpleasant thing should be.

 

"You fit in but you're not useful," Hiccup shrugged off the glare he got. "What? It's true. And what was the clicking thing?"

 

"One of your academy students showed me how to teach a dragon hand signals. I only have one hand so I wanted to know if sounds would work just as well," Dagur rolled his shoulder some to get used to Trapjaw's weight on it, and he got hard headbutt to the side of his face from the little dragon in response. The berserker grumbled but didn't do anything else, he just settled back down and Trapjaw did the same.

 

"Which one?" Hiccup was more surprised than anything else, pretty much nobody wanted to be near Dagur. Well, except...

 

"I... don't know," Dagur frowned as he tried to remember.

 

"If you don't know you either have a terrible memory or it was one of the twins," Hiccup offered. And that made sense, Tuffnut seemed enthralled with the idea of being a berserker since he had pretended to be one, and Ruffnut loved any excuse to try to cause havoc. It was enough that both of them were willing to forget that Dagur had tried to kill their dragon. Either one of them would have taught Dagur something that he could have used for something awful and possibly fire-starting.

 

"Yeah, it was one of them."

 

"Ruffnut or Tuffnut? Or, the girl or the boy?" Hiccup asked. Dagur gave him a sort of angry and at the same time pleading look, he didn't want to have to admit he didn't know something twice in a row. Hiccup huffed and jerked back a little when Trapjaw barked at him. "Alright, fine, was it the one with braids?"

 

Dagur shrugged and that made Trapjaw turn around and bite on a hunk of his uneven hair, the little dragon pulling on it with a growl. After a moment there was a smell of something burning and Hiccup reached up to try to yank the hair out of Trapjaw's mouth.

 

"Stop that, quit setting him on fire!" the dragon rider managed to pull off the Terror and Dagur stumbled back.

 

"It's fine, I don't care," Dagur said and he reached for the little dragon. Trapjaw wriggled and squirmed and snapped his teeth in Hiccup's grip until he let the purple dragon go. When he was free Trapjaw just ran up Dagur's arm to settle on his shoulder again, glaring evilly at Hiccup.

 

"He's biting and burning things in his mouth and you don't care?"

 

"Not when it's my hair," Dagur answered. "If he does it to a finger then he'll pay."

 

"You can't just let him do that, if he makes it a habit it'll be a lot harder to break him of it later," Hiccup sighed. "Maybe... if it was a little shorter then he wouldn't try."

 

Dagur glared at him at that, and Hiccup wasn't surprised. Dagur had hacked off the braid for his sister to take back as a trophy to show that Dagur really wasn't the berserker chief anymore and she was. It had to have been a sore spot, even now. Dagur hadn't done anything to his hair since then, it was just uneven from where he had cut it and where Trapjaw had just burned a chunk off.

 

"I can at least get a pair of shears and even it up. I know you're crazy but you don't have to look feral too," Hiccup offered.

 

" _Shears_?"

 

"They're small, it's the same size I use for mine. It's not like I'm going to try to take your head off."

 

"Alright," Dagur said after a bit. Hiccup frowned, confused that Dagur actually agreed to it without putting up a fight about it.

 

"Really?" Hiccup asked.

 

"Sure. If you're wasting time cutting my hair I don't have to pretend to be interested in plants."

 

"You're not getting out of it that easy, Johann's going to be docked here for three days. That's more than enough time for us to go see if he has anything," Hiccup smiled a little and reached to tug Dagur's good arm to pull him off the path they were headed, away from the docks. "There's a pair of shears in the smithy, I just sharpened them. Come on."

 

Dagur followed him, and they had both managed to get better at ignoring the looks Dagur would get in the village--although the former berserker seemed to be getting less of them nowadays. People were getting used to him, but that might not have been a good thing, Hiccup had overheard a few people call Dagur his other pet and he didn't want the other boy knowing about that. There wasn't much to show in the blacksmith's, Hiccup was fairly used to it and most of it was either unfinished or hadn't even really been started yet, the things that were finished were usually bought or picked up by their owners fairly quickly. He had to smack Dagur's hand away from a few things, a short sword, a dagger, a mace, a crossbow. After the second time Dagur was just doing it to bug Hiccup and distract him from getting a stool and finding the shears.

 

"Is it alright for him to sleep there?" Dagur asked seemingly out of nowhere.

 

"Huh?" Hiccup looked up and finally noticed that Trapjaw wasn't on Dagur's shoulder anymore, and after a quick look around he found the Terror curled up near the forge fire. "Oh, yeah. If he gets too hot he'll move, but they like warming up."

 

"So is this--" Dagur reached for something else and Hiccup slapped his hand away from the metal with a huff without even looking at it. Dagur just laughed and Hiccup grumbled under his breath until the older boy spoke again, "So those aren't the shears you want?"

 

Hiccup actually looked down at the table that time and he felt like an idiot when he saw them. He picked up the shears and pointed at the stool he put far enough away from anything that Dagur could try to reach and grab while he was cutting, "Just sit down."

 

Dagur laughed again but he obeyed and sat down. There was that, at least. And... probably there wasn't much of a point to saying he didn't do this often for other people and he might be fairly bad at it. There was no way he could actually make Dagur look _worse,_ after all. Hiccup raked his fingers through the red hair and started finding where the hair had been cut shortest, he planned to just make most of it match that, and he started cutting through it in small locks at a time. He couldn't make Dagur look worse, but he didn't really want to try to make him look bad, and... it was sort of weird and sort of nice. Dagur was paranoid and insane and he looked at people like they were same way, he'd been entirely convinced Hiccup was going to try to hurt him or kill him when they were trapped together. Now he was actually letting Hiccup stand at his back with a set of blades in his hand.

 

"You could probably use fish oil to slick your hair back. Ruffnut uses it in hers to make it easier to braid," Hiccup said after a little bit. "It wouldn't be the same but you'd look kind of like you did before."

 

"Nah, not fish oil. It has too strong of a smell," Dagur said. He didn't sound tense, he actually sounded more relaxed than he had been while they were walking.

 

"You care about smells?" Hiccup laughed a little.

 

"Yeah. You have to be careful with smell when you're hunting, animals can smell people coming if you don't bathe often enough or use oils with strong scents."

 

"Guess you'll be at the bathhouse more often when your arm heals, huh?"

 

Dagur shrugged and Hiccup ruffled his hair to get most of the loose cut hairs off of him, combing his fingers through it again and going back to it.

 

"...I wasn't lying before. About the boar," Hiccup said hesitantly. He shouldn't have said anything, but... "Most of what we eat is fish so a little change from that is a good thing. But boar are dangerous and strong and hard to kill, so we don't always go after them, especially the ones that live deeper in the wilderness."

 

"Are you hoping that sending me out to hunt them will end with me being hunted instead?"

 

"No," Hiccup said and he was pretty much done with Dagur's hair at that point, but he didn't want to say it just yet. "I'm hoping if you're a good hunter then that'll make you useful enough to stay here without worrying about farming, and you'd actually be happy killing and butchering things. Wouldn't you?"

 

Dagur was quiet for a moment, then he glanced back to Hiccup and muttered, "Yeah, I would."

 

"So," Hiccup drew out the word and pushed Dagur's head back the way he had it before, combing his fingers through his hair again awkwardly and finding another lock to cut, "Heal up, and get your strength back. And if you tell me what kind of weapon you want for boar hunting I can make it for you."


	5. Chapter 5

"Come aboard, my dear friends from the finest island that rests in this deep sea! I have great treasures from far and wide, trinkets the like you've never seen, why, the story behind this chalice is nearly worth more than the gold it was crafted from!" Johann's voice carried over the docks as he tried to peddle his wares to anyone who came close. He'd been there for a few hours now, most of the people on Berk that were itching to buy something had already come and gone with their new prizes, so the ones who were left were the few that hadn't decided yet or hadn't been one of the few rushing to greet the trader when he first came. Johann's first day at port was usually his best of trading, and while he'd still be around for the next couple of days it wasn't likely that he'd be on his boat much when Berk offered fresh food and a place to stretch his legs that didn't roll with the tides.

 

"Ah, my dear Master Hiccup!" Johann called out as soon as Hiccup was within sight of the boat, and the boy couldn't help but smile a little. "I'd begun to worry about you, my lad! You're usually one of the curious come to look at my wares before anyone else."

 

"I was just distracted," Hiccup called back to Johann when he was closer. He started to hurry, then paused and looked back to Dagur. "Maybe you should stay here for a bit?"

 

"Oh no. I don't have to look at seeds. How awful," Dagur drawled and Hiccup rolled his eyes as he left the other boy behind. He paused at the ramp to the trading ship and held his hand up to Toothless.

 

"Sorry, bud. You just hang out here and keep an eye on those two, alright?" Hiccup smiled and nodded towards Dagur and Trapjaw, where the Terror was squawking and trying to climb up Dagur's pants. Toothless looked back to them and made a loud, unhappy sound, but all that got him was a rub under his chin, not any pity. "Yeah I know, but that's why they need a babysitter. I'll be back."

 

"Perhaps you'll find something to ask for your dear Night Fury's forgiveness," Johann grinned and waved his hand at the filled crates and barrels that his ship was full of--although it was probably less full now than it had been when he first docked. "And maybe even your, ah... friend?"

 

Hiccup looked back to Johann, then followed his sight to Dagur who was trying to push Trapjaw back to the ground and off of himself. "Ah, yeah... Dagur's going to be here for a bit."

 

"Dagur the Deranged?" Johann turned back to Hiccup. He didn't have as many problems with the Berserkers as Berk did, but the few he had dealt with had been unpleasant enough to sour his opinion on the people and on the former chief especially.

 

"A little more damaged than deranged at the moment," Hiccup said and started looking through the crates. "Anyway, he's on farmland now and has to learn to use it, so I was wondering if you had any edible plants he could grow?"

 

"I'm afraid such things were grabbed up quickly with my first few customers, although I assure you they seemed to be farmers of the highest caliber and quite capable of supplying Berk with the fantastic new vegetables I had provided."

 

Hiccup sighed at that and picked up a throwing knife set, he recognized it as one Astrid had used and had brought to the shop to have sharpened fairly regularly. She must have gotten something good to want to part with them. "So you don't have anything?"

 

"Ah, well, that I can't be sure of. There may be something tucked away but I cannot promise much," Johann seemed genuinely sorry about it. "If I had known you wanted something so far outside of your usual interests, lad, I certainly would have set something aside for you."

 

"It's fine," Hiccup said, although he didn't really want to say it was fine. He wanted to get something quick for Dagur so he could look around for things he might like.

 

"Look around, perhaps you'll find something you'd like even better. Ah, no! Not you! Shoo!" Johann turned to the ramp and Hiccup looked after him, not sure if it would be Dagur or Trapjaw as the ones who'd be unwelcome and might have followed him up. It wasn't either of them, though, Snotlout was the one Johann was fussing at and the black haired boy grumbled when he was told to leave.

 

"Oh come on, I haven't broken your stuff since like the last three times you've been here."

 

"Yes, and you haven't been welcome on my ship since the last _six_ times I've come to Berk. Go on, away with you. I'd rather have the berserker boy back on my boat, he actually broke less than you last time I dealt with him," Johann managed to get Snotlout halfway down the ramp and seemed to decide that was good enough. The trader turned back to his goods and boarded his ship, and it was then that Snotlout actually noticed Dagur standing nearby.

 

"Hey, that's my dragon!" Snotlout called over to Dagur, who had given up on pushing Trapjaw back to the ground and just let the Terror sit on his shoulder again.

 

"No, _that's_ your dragon. The big red thing behind you," Dagur gestured toward Hookfang and grumbled when Trapjaw stretched up to flop on top of his head.

 

"No, that's my Terror! He's mine, I trained him and everything. Come here, Little Snotlout," Snotlout said firmly and Trapjaw wrapped his front legs around Dagur's head to cling to him with a growl.

 

"Little Snotlout?" Dagur just gave the boy a questioning look and an amused smirk and Snotlout bristled.

 

"I said come here!" Snotlout yelled it that time and Trapjaw, in response, screamed at him.

 

"Can you not do that? He's right next to my ear," Dagur grumbled and rolled his shoulder to get the purple dragon less firmly attached to his head so he could rub at his ear.

 

\- - -

 

Hiccup grumbled under his breath and continued looking through the crates to see if there was anything worthwhile for him to get or Dagur to plant. At least with Snotlout trying to pick a fight Dagur would be entertained enough that Hiccup wouldn't have to worry about hurrying. A lot of the sorts of things that were really interesting or within his budget were mostly gone. It made sense, Johann was right and he was usually one of the first ones on the trading ship to look at what was newly brought, so Hiccup had always had good luck snatching something up before anyone else saw it and tried to get it. Now it was more common things, or things Johann had just acquired from Berk, or the few rare things he wasn't able to sell anywhere and slowly became part of his infamous 'And I'll throw this in as my gift to you!' pile. It looked like there was a small crate newly placed over there already. It might have just been put there by someone looking through things, or Johann had just given up on something early since nobody was interested.

 

"I didn't know you'd gotten new paint," Hiccup said it after he opened a jar with a blue-gray paste inside of it. He was assuming that was what it was since it smelled like grease paint, at least. It wouldn't have been the first time Johann brought something horrifying that was supposed to be eaten, though.

 

"Ah, berserker war paint," Johann corrected. Hiccup made a face and put the lid back on the jar quickly, he almost wished it had been some disgusting food after all. The trader sighed and continued, "Yes, that's everyone's reaction. Nobody ever wants to buy something a berserker may have used once."

 

"Can you blame them?" Hiccup set the jar aside and knelt down to open the new crate put in Johann's free gift pile. He didn't expect what he found in it and just stared at it.

 

" I'm afraid that's the same as the war paint. Nobody wants it. It's a lovely thing to have another island to add to my trade route, truly it is, but the Outcasts have so very little of worth and it seems like even the things they acquire are unwanted."

 

Hiccup reached in and took out the helmet carefully, like he thought the long battle-weary horns would actually be damaged just from him being rough with it. He turned it over in his hands and tried to make sure, but he hadn't ever really counted the dents in the iron or noted the way the spikes along the top of it bent. He wasn't sure if it was damaged or not, but he knew what it was.

 

"This is Dagur's," Hiccup said. He put the helmet aside and looked through the rest of the crate. Dagur's clothes and weapons weren't with his helmet, just his armor. The padded guards for his legs and arm, the iron for his shoulders and knees, and the studded overskirt. The belt wasn't there but that wasn't surprising. Bola had been wearing the Berserker symbol when she'd come to Berk and things like that were usually sacred. She might have cleaned it since getting it, but she hadn't had a new one forged.

 

"Yes, I had thought it was," Johann still had the same long-suffering tone. "The sword and axe and daggers that had been with it fetched a modest amount, but the armor itself isn't as valuable. It's all designed for a body that's far too small and thin than most of my customers, and the helmet is too iconic of the boy for anyone else to want to don it. Berk wasn't the only enemy he'd made, you know."

 

Hiccup got everything back into the crate, Dagur's helmet included, and he just sort of stared down into it as he thought. Although thinking didn't help him in the end, after he crouched there and stared at it for a little while he just ran on impulse anyway. Hiccup grabbed the jar of war paint and added it to Dagur's armor before he closed the crate and hefted it up.

 

"I want this. All of it."


	6. Chapter 6

Hiccup made Dagur help him with the crate once he was off of Johann's ship. Dagur led the way back up to his hut, holding one side of the crate with his one good hand while Hiccup had the other end in both of his, and the berserker grumbled and huffed the whole way.

 

"Why can't you just strap this to your dragon?"

 

"Toothless doesn't like being treated like a beast of burden," Hiccup shifted the weight in his hands so the wood would stop digging in on his fingers as badly.

 

"I'd say he has to haul you around all the time, but you don't look like you weigh anything at all," Dagur said. Even just looking at the back of his head Hiccup knew he was grinning, and he pushed the crate forward to hit Dagur's arm and back roughly.

 

"Watch it!" Dagur snarled and looked back over his shoulder to Hiccup, the bigger boy had barely managed to keep from pitching forward.

 

"Hm? Oh, sorry. You're still really slow, I guess you're not back to normal yet," Hiccup shrugged and smiled at him and Dagur growled louder as he looked back to the path. At least he was complaining less when he was sulking.

 

"You should be thanking me, you know. What's in here is for you," Hiccup said.

 

"Yeah, great. Thanks for a bunch of plants. I owe you," Dagur said it with as much sarcasm as he could shove into the words. Hiccup glared at him and he was half tempted to tell Dagur what it was now to make him stop being so unpleasant. The other half had the urge to just kick it down the hill. He didn't do either, though. Trapjaw had hopped up and scrambled to get onto the crate and Hiccup wasn't going to throw something with a dragon on it. Even if it was a bitey little dragon.

 

"So how'd you convince Snotlout to stop saying Trapjaw is his, anyway?

 

"I told him he could take the thing if he wanted it. Trapjaw bit him. A lot," Dagur laughed at that and shifted the crate in his hand, making the Terror topple over and scream at him. "And when he tried to walk off with it the dragon just came back to me."

 

"He likes you," Hiccup said, a little surprised at that. "And he's a he, not an it."

 

"He, it, whatever. It doesn't know what I'm saying."

 

"Actually, he probably does. Dragons can learn vocal commands and he might have picked something up around the other riders."

 

"Good, teach it to farm so I don't have to."

 

Hiccup just rolled his eyes and looked back to Toothless. The Night Fury was mostly following them, he was nosing at the bushes every now and then and that was a little odd. The action was normal for Toothless, but odd when he was around Dagur. Toothless was usually more on-edge, crouched down most of the time like he was waiting to attack.

 

"I think Toothless is getting used to you."

 

Dagur didn't comment, he just grunted and started to set down his end of the crate once they were on the edge of the farm.

 

"Nuh-uh, it's going in your house."

 

"What? Why?" Dagur growled at him. "It's just a bunch of plants that are getting put in the ground anyway."

 

"Because I said so. So pick it back up," Hiccup said sternly. Dagur growled again but he obeyed and bent down to pick his end of the crate back up roughly. The contents clattered and Hiccup winced, hoping the jar of paint hadn't fallen over or broken. Dagur frowned at the sound, it wasn't a noise plants should make--at least he assumed it wasn't--and he looked back to Hiccup.

 

"What was that?"

 

"You can open it once it's inside," Hiccup said. Dagur actually seemed interested enough to hurry up and stop dragging his feet at that and when they were in the hut he was kneeling down to open it up. The bigger boy paused and just seemed confused as he took out his helmet. He looked over it, and Hiccup worried he made a mistake and it wasn't the right one, but it was and Dagur looked back up to Hiccup.

 

"Why-- _how_ did you..." Dagur started but he didn't seem to know how to finish. He looked back down into the crate and picked up the other pieces of his armor that had been bought with the lot.

 

"It's yours," Hiccup said, then winced at himself. He could do better than that. "It was yours, I mean. And now it is again. Johann couldn't sell this stuff, he said he sold the weapons, and I think Alvin gave your belt to Bola for the buckle, but you'll look a little bit more like your old self with this, right?"

 

"Right..." Dagur muttered as he took out the shoulder cop, rounder and heavier-looking than the stacked plates that went on his other shoulder, but after he handled them himself Hiccup knew it was actually the lighter of the two.

 

"Hold on," Hiccup knelt down and Dagur watched him. He seemed way too confused and Hiccup just shrugged it off as the older boy never really getting a present he didn't attack someone for first. The dragon rider took the lid off of the jar of paint and dipped his fingers into it, and he didn't bother asking before he reached up to smear it down over Dagur's eye in three long streaks. The bigger boy winced and closed his eyes when Hiccup got too close--which to be fair Hiccup would do the same if Dagur came right at his face, and he'd probably try to punch him too--but Dagur kept still for him.

 

"There, now you look more like you," Hiccup smiled a little, and when Dagur just kept giving him the same confused, stunned expression the smaller boy laughed awkwardly. "Alright, fine, it's probably awful. You can fix it later. But I just thought you might like this better than plants. And Johann kind of sold out before we even got there, so--"

 

Hiccup was thankfully cut off before he kept stumbling over his own words by the sound of something large hitting the top of the hut and making the rafters creak. They both got up to go to the door but Hiccup got there first. And he was met with a Zippleback peering at him and making the low clicking sound fairly common of the species.

 

"Oh. Hey, Barf," Hiccup patted the dragon's cheek and looked up the neck to his rider. "Ruff, why are you here?"

 

"Your dad's looking for you," she grinned.

 

"And we were sent to find you," Tuffnut grinned wide down at Hiccup and his sister. Belch's head was up higher, it was the one that Dagur had actually been menacing when he was determined to kill a dragon on Berk and the dragon was wary of the former Berserker chief since then. Belch seemed to have a better memory than his rider, or he was at least less inclined to forgive.

 

"Let me guess, because you were the first two he saw?" Hiccup sighed.

 

"Yeah, how'd you know?" Ruffnut grinned. Barf just grabbed the back of Hiccup's vest and started to pick him up, willing to take his job of fetching Hiccup far too literally.

 

"No--wait! Put me down!" Hiccup wriggled in the Zippleback's grasp and pushed at Barf's jaw until he let go, and as he fell Toothless jumped up to catch him on the saddle. The Night Fury's rider grunted and was slower to get settled than if he had mounted normally but eventually he was seated. "Thanks, Toothless. You don't need to carry me, I can ride there on my own, alright?"

 

"We knew that," Tuffnut said loudly, but when Ruffnut looked to her brother he just shrugged like he thought Hiccup couldn't actually see how confused he was. Hiccup reached up to rub over his face with a sigh.

 

"Alright, fine, let's just go," Hiccup urged Toothless to the clearing where he could take off easier and as an afterthought looked back to Dagur. "I'll be back later."

 

If the berserker said anything Hiccup didn't hear it as his dragon took into the sky.


	7. Chapter 7

"Fishlegs told me you've gotten everything on the Skrill you can get," Stoick hadn't even given Hiccup enough time to dismount from Toothless before he started talking to his son.

 

"Well, no, I mean there might be more. I just finalized my notes and added them to the book," Hiccup said.

 

"Does 'might be more' mean there are things Dagur's keeping from you and you need, or things that haven't been discovered by anyone yet?"

 

"It's... sort of mostly the second one," Hiccup hurried through the words.

 

"Good, then it's time for him to leave," Stoick said firmly. With anyone else the chief's stern words wouldn't have given any room to argue with, but that never stopped Hiccup before.

 

"Listen, I know you wanted him off of the island--"

 

"Good, then we're in agreement."

 

"-- _But_ I think we should let him stay here," Hiccup said it as firmly as he could. If he wanted to make his father pause from his duties and look back at him then he succeeded, but now that he had the chief's full attention Hiccup wasn't sure what else to say. So he just started trying to say it all, "He could be a good hunter, he can obviously stalk things--"

 

"Like you."

 

"--And he's good at setting traps--"

 

"Aye, ones you've been caught in."

 

"--And that could be useful!" Hiccup nearly yelled it. The most frustrating thing was he knew that later his dad wouldn't have heard any of the points he was making, he'd only remember the ones that came from the great Stoick the Vast. "You said it yourself, the boar are getting more dangerous the more we have tamed dragons around, they're getting scared and violent and we can't even keep them corralled in the village anymore. If Dagur's the one hunting them instead--"

 

"No," Stoick held up his hand to Hiccup. "I don't want him here. The only one who did was you, Hiccup, and the only reason you wanted him here was for information about dragons. He's given you that and now it's time for him to go."

 

"Where? And _how?_ " Hiccup asked.

 

"He'll be leaving with Johann when he sets sail. Where he's left after that I don't care."

 

"What if he ends up on Outcast Island again? Or Berserk?" Hiccup tried appealing to some sympathy Stoick might have, but while he was a compassionate man at times Stoick held no fondness for men that threatened him or his family.

 

"As I said, I don't care. Now, I'm not going to ask what you've been doing with Dagur all this time--"

 

"I haven't been _doing_ anything!" Hiccup was flushed and he wasn't sure if it was anger or embarrassment or both, "And I'm showing him how to farm, he can be useful, he just--"

 

"The discussion is over, Hiccup," Stoick said, not yelling but definitely loud enough to subdue his son for the moment. "Dagur is leaving in three days, and if you ask me it's not soon enough. Just go make sure he's ready to leave the next time you go up to see him."

 

Hiccup didn't say anything. He just stomped back to Toothless and got onto his dragon and sent him back up into the air. He didn't _want_ Dagur to leave. Because, sometimes, weirdly enough, it was kind of... nice. Just having him around.

 

\- - -

 

The flight back hadn't really been a flight straight back. Hiccup spent most of the time flying over Berk and watching the forest whip by under him as he settled down. He just hated being treated like he was a little kid, even if he knew his dad was right and Dagur should go. And when he wasn't being treated like a little kid he was being expected to act like Stoick's heir, like he should know absolutely everything and if he didn't he was somehow failing. So this was probably all some sort of failure on his part too, keeping Dagur around and trying to make him stay. Most people had stopped being twitchy around him, and Dagur seemed to be settling, but settled for the berserker boy probably just meant slightly less deranged than before. And, again, Hiccup grumbled and huffed and hated that his dad was right if only because it meant he was wrong. He steered Toothless toward the home set aside from everyone else on Berk and hopped off of the dragon once they landed.

 

"I wish he was more like you," Hiccup said as he rubbed over Toothless' neck. Hiccup wasn't even sure himself if he was talking about Stoick or Dagur, but when the Night Fury purred and leaned against him Hiccup just smiled. "Well, better to get this over with, right?"

 

As Hiccup went up to the hut he started to try to think of things he could say if Dagur did argue with him about it. Dagur didn't have anywhere else to go, but now he could pick to stay on any of the islands in Johann's trade route, right? Hiccup wasn't sure if Dagur could challenge Bola for control of the Berserker tribe again, but he'd probably try to anyway. So there was that, he might be able to be chief again. He could find an island with better game, couldn't he? And he didn't want to have to farm on Berk anyway so finding somewhere where hunting would be more valued would be a good thing. Dagur could go after wild yak and boar, even bears and wolves if he was going to go somewhere with less or no dragons.

 

Hiccup paused at the door and frowned at himself. He actually hated how easy it sounded in his head to convince Dagur to leave. The young viking didn't have long to think on it, almost as soon as Hiccup had stopped reaching for the door it swung open and Dagur was there grinning at him.

 

"Uh, hey," Hiccup started, a little unnerved by the berserker's sudden appearance and apparent eagerness. "Listen, I have something I have to tell yo--"

 

"I know," Dagur grinned wider. "I know all about it."

 

"You do?" Hiccup was torn between tensing and relaxing, not sure if he should be worried Dagur had some way of knowing what was going on in the village or if Hiccup should be glad this wasn't going to be a fight. "You don't seem mad."

 

"I'm not mad about it. I didn't think it was coming."

 

"You didn't?" Hiccup raised an eyebrow at that.

 

"Nah, but I should have expected it," Dagur gripped Hiccup's vest and pulled him closer. He wasn't trying to fight, if he was then Hiccup would have had the upper hand since the bigger boy's broken and slung arm was between them. That prominent weakness alone made Hiccup confused enough not to fight back and he stumbled closer.

 

"You're not subtle," the former berserker chief leaned in close and let go of Hiccup's vest to put his hand on the back of the smaller boy's neck instead. "Saving me, keeping me, my armor, the paint..."

 

"W-wait," Hiccup was trying to figure out what was going on. Dagur was too close but he wasn't really being threatening for once in his insane life. And Hiccup had thought it was about Dagur getting kicked out of Berk, but what did getting his armor back have to do with that? "I don't--"

 

"It's fine. I like it," Dagur cut him off and leaned down to close what little space had been left between them.

 

Hiccup tensed, but it was more because Dagur's damaged arm was against his belly than the fact he was being kissed. So, Dagur thought... Hiccup had no idea what Dagur thought. He wasn't even sure how they got to this point. He was supposed to be kicking Dagur out and that was all. If Stoick found out about this he wouldn't wait until Johann left the island to get rid of Dagur, he'd just tie him to a rock and throw him out to sea. Dagur bit at Hiccup's lip and he pressed closer--too close, his wrapped arm pressed against Hiccup and the berserker made a pitiful, strained little sound as he pulled back. It was either from a twinge of pain or embarrassment over his injury but it snapped Hiccup back to the moment.

 

He reached up to grip Dagur's hair and pulled him close again, and this time Hiccup bit first. It was awkward, Dagur was almost too much taller than him and Hiccup couldn't exactly stand on tiptoe anymore, but it was a lot easier than trying to figure things out. Hiccup could do that later, when he was flying again, or in his room, or doing something other than finding out how bitey a berserker was during a kiss--which was more than he expected, Dagur seemed to use his teeth more than his tongue. Hard, sharp teeth scraped over Hiccup's lips, his tongue, and clicked against his own. Slowly Dagur pulled back, and Hiccup let out a frustrated growl at having to come back to a world where he had to think things through instead of doing whatever he felt like.

 

"See?" Dagur licked at Hiccup's lip and bit at him again, lighter than before. "I said I like it."

 

Hiccup didn't really care right then. He nudged closer and kissed Dagur again, but whatever had kept him from thinking before wasn't working anymore. All he could do was think. Why this was wrong, why Dagur would think it, why was he reacting, why wasn't he just punching Dagur's damaged arm and going away? And that wasn't the worst of it, not by a long shot, if Stoick found out about this his dad would... he'd... Hiccup broke the kiss and barely even managed to catch his breath before he was letting all the thoughts that were chasing each other around in his head tumble out of his mouth, starting with the reason he came up to see Dagur in the first place, "My dad says you have to leave the island."

 

Dagur laughed at that and grinned as he pulled back from Hiccup, but after looking at the smaller boy he lost that amusement, "What?"

 

"You have to leave," Hiccup repeated. "You're going in three days, with Johann when he ships off from Berk."


	8. Chapter 8

"I'm sorry," Hiccup offered as he prodded at the fire he had been building. It wasn't that cold yet, the sun had just started to set, but Hiccup had wanted something to do even to the point of pushing Toothless away when the dragon had come up to light it for him when Hiccup got out his flint. He felt horrible, and stupid, like he had to think of something and there was just a huge block in the way. There wasn't anything to do about Dagur leaving Berk, and after the kiss Hiccup felt weirder about it than before. He didn't want Dagur to leave before, and he didn't now, but he couldn't put a specific reason to it. And Dagur had just given him a great one to use, but Hiccup wasn't entirely sure if he did like Dagur like that, or that much.

 

"Your dad's the one saying I have to leave, right?" Dagur was watching the fire too and he smirked a little. "Well, there's an easy solution for that. If you're in charge you can--"  


"No," Hiccup said it firmly. Even if he did like Dagur like that this was a road he didn't ever want to go down.

 

"You don't even have to do anything, I can--"

 

"I said no!" Hiccup yelled it at Dagur and finally turned to him with a glare for the first time since he had started working at the fire pit. "I don't want you to hurt my dad, _ever!_ Do you understand that?"

 

Dagur was staring at him shocked, then glared, "It's not a big deal."

 

"Yes it is. I don't know how you can even talk about doing that to someone I care about," Hiccup looked back at the fire with a grumble. "Maybe you can just get rid of people you love, but I can't."

 

"I didn't love my father," Dagur growled behind him. Hiccup sighed and poked the fire with a stick from the firewood pile, making sparks dance up in the air and go out, before he tossed the stick into the flames too.

 

"Is there anybody you care about?"

 

There was a long pause and Hiccup nearly curled up in his own miserable mood. Of course there wasn't anyone Dagur cared about, he probably couldn't love at all.

 

"My youngest sister," Dagur finally said. The anger was out of his voice this time and Hiccup finally moved away from the fire to come a little closer to him.

 

"So if someone wanted to hurt her, or said you had to, would you?"

 

"Probably," Dagur said it and reached for Hiccup's arm when he turned away from him. "I wouldn't like it, but I've done things I didn't like before."

 

"You don't have to," Hiccup said and he just let Dagur pull him closer. It was probably a mistake to do that, he ended up with Dagur at his back with the berserker's good arm around his middle, but there wasn't much of a reason to try to get away from the hug once he was in it. "We'll figure something out. Maybe if you make an effort to be useful, or apologize to my dad, or do _something_ you can stay."

 

Dagur nuzzled into Hiccup's hair and the smaller boy laughed a little, "And don't mention this. If my dad knew about this he'd probably just kill you."

 

"I can defend myself," Dagur growled into Hiccup's hair with an almost-amused tone.

 

"No you can't," Hiccup meant it literally, Dagur was still injured and Stoick was probably more than a match for him even in top form. Hiccup knew the bigger boy didn't take well to being called weak, though, and he teased to try to lighten the mood, "I said you can't hurt him, remember? If you fight him my dad will be limping away."

 

Dagur made a low sound that was nearly a purr and went back to nuzzling into Hiccup's short hair. Hiccup smiled a little and told himself it went as well as it could have as he leaned into the attention, and tried to tell himself he wasn't doing anything of the sort.

 

\- - -

 

It was easier to say Dagur might find a way to stay on Berk than it was to actually try to find a place where he fit in. The unpleasant personality wasn't that much of a problem, there were plenty of vikings that were awful to be around, but they tended to be like Mildew who could actually provide something like cabbage and for the most part never really did something too awful that warranted banishment. Until he found a job Dagur was mostly useless and demented. At least he was slightly more willing to try now, and the following morning Toothless had flown them to the forge so Hiccup could look over what equipment was newly made or repaired there to get an idea about something the berserker might be able to do.

 

"You can't fish, can you?" Hiccup asked as he watched Dagur try to find the edge of the net the smaller boy had shoved into his hand. Dagur grumbled and glared at him in response. Unfortunately the willingness to try to find a use for himself made it more obvious that Dagur just didn't have one. He was a warrior and he was a hunter, and he was good at both, but day-to-day life was a bit beyond him.

 

"It's fine, we'll just find something else," Hiccup sighed and took back the net. This was already starting to feel hopeless, and the day was just beginning. "We'll just think of something else, you're strong, maybe you can--"

 

"Stop," Dagur cut him off. "Just. Stop. Let me go."

 

"I thought you wanted to stay," Hiccup grumbled. If Dagur was just going to give up...

 

"No, not off of Berk. Let me go out into the forest. I'll hunt something and bring it back and tada, useful," Dagur pushed himself up from where he had been sitting and looked over the weapons.

 

"I'm not letting you hunt injured. Just sit down and let me think," Hiccup said.

 

"You've been thinking since I got here and it hasn't done anything yet," Dagur snorted and Hiccup glared at his back. The bigger boy finally picked out what weapons he wanted for his trip, although Hiccup was sure they'd all be useless in Dagur's non-dominant hand. When the berserker finally looked back at the smaller boy he came over to him and tugged on Hiccup's vest to pull him close. "I'm going to be fine, you'll see."

 

"No you're not--don't," Hiccup jerked back a little when Dagur tried to lean in too close and pushed against his good shoulder. "My dad can't know, and if anyone sees it they'll tell him. So just--don't."

 

Dagur pulled back and Hiccup scruffed his hand through his brown hair in frustration. There was no way this could work, he saw how possessive Dagur was before over Hiccup being his brother, he was just going to get worse when Hiccup was going to be his boyfriend and it was going to be obvious.

 

"Hold still," Dagur pulled back as he said it and Hiccup looked up at him, confused but willing to humor him for a bit. The bigger boy rubbed two fingers against the paint over his eye, smearing some of it off and he touched under Hiccup's eye. The smaller viking twitched at the close touch but he stayed still, and Dagur drew a curved line under his eye and slid his fingers down a little, making two short tails from the dark line. "There. Is doing that better?"

 

"Uh... yeah? Yeah, that's fine," Hiccup said. It was weird and he kind of wanted to rub at the paint as soon as it was on, but it wasn't the same as a kiss or something else that might have gotten rumors.

 

"Good," Dagur grinned at him and left the forge. "Then just wait, I'll bring back something impressive."

 

"I'm not waiting here the whole time!" Hiccup called after Dagur as he left and gestured around him at the smithy even though the other boy didn't even look back at him.

 

"Not waiting here for what?"

 

Hiccup turned to the voice, "Hey, Astrid."

 

"Whoa, who hit you?"

 

"Huh?" Hiccup frowned and Astrid pointed to his face, at the eye that Dagur had just painted. He reached up and touched the paint to show her the dark smudges that came off onto his fingers. "Oh, no, I didn't get punched or anything, see? Dagur painted it."

 

"That's weird," Astrid said.

 

"Yeah, I know. That pretty much describes all berserkers."

 

Astrid nodded and held up a rolled up piece of parchment she had brought with her and bopped Hiccup on the head with it. "Johann said your father's supposed to get this. He was waiting for him at the docks but I guess Stoick never came aboard."

 

"What is it?" Hiccup asked as he took it from her and started to unroll it.

 

"I have no idea."

 

"What, you didn't read it?" Hiccup laughed a little and looked down at the writing... at least he thought it was writing. "Uh..."

 

"Yeah, I _tried_ to read it. As you can see that didn't work out so well," Astrid looked over his shoulder at the chicken scratch.

 

"I don't think my dad's going to understand this either... Wait," Hiccup frowned and turned it to the side some, and the overly-slanted letters and scratchy writing made a little more sense. Barely.

 

_I want to visit, harvest_

_I want to see_

 

That was all Hiccup could really read, and he read it aloud to Astrid. That just made it more confusing to both of them. There were scratchy blobs of ink under 'harvest' that Hiccup was going to guess were sketches, but of what he had no idea. Beside 'see' like it was a part of the sentence was a crude sun, and at the very end of the note was just a black smear with a few voids in it that that yellowed parchment could be seen through.

 

"So someone's coming to Berk?" Astrid asked carefully. "Is this a threat or someone asking for an invitation?"

 

"I have no idea," Hiccup said as he rolled the scribbled note back up. "But it's for my dad, so we should get it to him."


	9. Chapter 9

"Now, listen, I don't know what you've been promised but I can offer you a lot more. Got that?" Snotlout grinned as he bargained, and he tried his best to act aloof and that he didn't really care one way or the other. "Food, right? I can get you way better. Somewhere to stay? Pff, have you seen the place you're in? It's awful. I can get you somewhere way nicer. Warmer too, if I let Hookfang sleep over he'll make the whole place toasty warm. So what do you say?"

 

Trapjaw cocked his head and licked over his eye, but he wasn't particularly impressed and started trotting away.

 

"Hey, come back here!" Snotlout yelled after the Terror and stomped his foot, "You stupid little--! I mean, I don't care. Nope. Never did. Go on! Scram!"

 

"That's certainly... something," Hiccup watched the dragon toddling off and then looked back to Snotlout. "So you were trying to... Do what, exactly?"

 

"Nothing," Snotlout huffed and crossed his arms. "I don't care that he's hanging around Dagur. I never cared," Snotlout grumbled and looked back to the purple Terror as it walked away, "I hope he eats you!"

 

"Uh-huh. That's certainly something," Hiccup started off to leave Snotlout to his angry yelling again, but the other boy just walked alongside him.

 

"Where's your other pet anyway, huh?"

 

"Are you the one that started that?" Hiccup frowned at him.

 

"What, me? Of course not, it must have been someone else," Snotlout said, and with his grin and tone it was entirely unconvincing. "It fits, though."

 

"Not really, if he was my pet I could keep him from attacking someone," Hiccup said and that seemed to shut Snotlout up pretty well. "And he's in the woods somewhere. He said he was going to go hunting."

 

"With a broken arm."

 

"Yeah, I'm just hoping he comes back," Hiccup sighed. He leaned away from Snotlout a little when the other boy gave him a sort of angry and questioning look. "He picked mid-range weapons, alright? He's going to try to get close to the boar he wants to kill and that'd be stupid even if he wasn't hurt."

 

"Think if he dies Little Snotlout will come back to me?"

 

"Considering he hasn't been around you for a few months now and you only want him back because someone else has him? Nope. Not at all. And I think he likes being called Trapjaw better."

 

Hiccup smiled when Snotlout glared at him and stalked off. It was mean, but it was kind of funny, and if Hiccup could annoy Snotlout for all the times the other boy got on his nerves he was going to take it.

 

\- - -

 

Hiccup had delivered the message to his father, although Stoick had simply tucked it into his belt and gone back to dissuading the argument over if a particularly handsome chicken was really worth the same as a sheep. If it had been an emergency Johann would have brought it to Stoick himself and immediately. After that the day had been relatively normal, although with more people asking if Hiccup was alright because of the smudged dark paint on his face that looked like a black eye. It was actually worse later in the day, Hiccup had gotten tired of the way it felt and getting second glances when someone would notice something was off about him so he had tried to rub it off, and he found out the hard way that the war paint didn't fully wipe off. It smudged and smeared and stained his hands and his sleeve, but there was still the dark grayish-blue smear under his eye and it looked even more like a bruise afterwards.

 

But it was a normal day, so after delivering the message Hiccup had gone back to the forge without too many people who would comment on the paint and asked if he had gotten into a fight. Astrid had gone off on patrol after she had given him the message so it was just Hiccup and Gobber while they worked. It was... sort of weird not having to really worry about when he'd have to babysit Dagur. Hiccup had gotten used to being around the young man. And it didn't help that even though Hiccup knew hunting trips weren't quick he kept finding himself worrying about the deranged teen. If he was alright or if he was hurt or...

 

Hiccup shook his head and reached over to rub Toothless' head. He had left the smithy earlier than usual, and since there wasn't an overabundance of orders Gobber had just let him go. Gobber had, of course, rolled his eyes and asked Odin what was happening to the youth of Berk when Hiccup said he wanted to go to the bathhouse before he went home, but that was it.

 

"He's fine, right, bud?" Hiccup asked the Night Fury, and Toothless gave him a reassuring growl. The boy smiled and rubbed over his friend's head and neck before he started into the bathhouse. "Just stay out here, alright? You try to drink the bathwater and its gross."

 

For a moment Toothless seemed like he was going to listen, but as soon as Hiccup let himself in the dragon was nosing at the door and pawing at it, and eventually he got it open again to go inside with Hiccup. It was hot and muggy from the water heated over fires--and Fireworms. They liked the heat, and when the tiny dragons weren't being chased away anymore they had started settling down in places that typically had at least a few live coals in it at a time. The bathhouse fires, the one in the great hall, and one or two would settle into homes if the family kept them fed and happy in the fire pit. It actually worked fairly well to help the coals last longer, the tiny Stoker class dragons would curl up on the smoldering embers and the fire would feed off of their internal heat until it could be given new fuel.

 

And they were surprisingly good swimmers. Hiccup looked at the soaking tub when he had finished undressing and reached in to scoop out a tiny Fireworm that had been paddling along in the water. It squeaked at him and he wasn't sure if that was a good squeak or a bad squeak, but when he set it on the edge of the wood the tiny dragon scampered down the side of the tub and scurried away. Hiccup put his wood and metal leg aside where he could grab it easily and settled into the water with a hiss, between the fires and the Fireworm swimming around it was almost too hot, but he relaxed into it after a moment. ...Mostly. The scarring around the stump of his leg was still too sensitive sometimes, especially around heat. He wasn't even really sure what had happened to his foot, everything with the Red Death had been happening so fast and there was almost too much to keep track of, but the way it had first ached like it was on fire when he was healing and the scars afterward was enough to know that he had been badly burned. Too badly to save all of his leg. Hiccup shifted in the water, crossing his legs and touching the scarred skin lightly under the water, hoping to rub away some of the still-too-sensitive throb. He hoped he wasn't going to have that twinge for the rest of his life, and he was reminded of why he didn't really soak that often, he usually just scrubbed what he had to out of a bucket and left it at that.

 

On some level Toothless probably always knew what Hiccup was feeling. He cared about his rider and he tried to take care of him the best way he could. Sometimes he was better about it than others. This time the Night Fury butted his nose against Hiccup's cheek and when he got a smile from the boy he hopped up and started climbing into the tub.

 

"Toothless, no!" Hiccup jerked and tried to push the dragon back out. "You know you're not small enough to fit in he--ack!"

 

Toothless was not swayed from his pursuit in comforting Hiccup and he climbed as much into the tub as he could. He still had a back leg and his tail sticking out of the water, and his wings were held up awkwardly, but he was in and he was squishing Hiccup up against the side of the tub and since he felt like he had done his job well he started purring in the water.

 

"Yeah, it's bath time, buddy," Hiccup patted Toothless' neck and reached to tug at the buckles to the saddle and harness he was still wearing. "I really wish I had taken this off of you. You don't have any idea of how to care for leather, do you?"

 

Toothless made a happy sound, Hiccup was sounding and acting more like himself, and he wiggled some in the water. At first he was moving to somewhat help Hiccup get the straps off of him so the dragon rider could get the harness and saddle aside, but then the Night Fury was just splashing at the water and dunked his head in to start drinking it.

 

"Ew. See? You're gross," Hiccup smiled though and reached to get a handful of water to start scrubbing the paint off of his eye while he could. At least no matter what was happening Toothless would always be there to try to cheer him up. Or at least distract him for a little while.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In memory of the sweetest little cat who for some reason thought bath water was tasty. I love you, Lil Shade.


	10. Chapter 10

On Toothless' insistence after the bath Hiccup had harnessed the dragon again and they had gone flying. It was a nice way to end the day, a good way to just get up and away from everything, although the flight through the cold wind had made the ends of Hiccup's hair freeze in the twilight air. Hiccup had gone flying with Toothless often enough after a bath, though, and he'd just accepted that the ice was the price of getting clean right before a sunset flight. He'd missed dinner, but honestly Hiccup wasn't that hungry. He wouldn't admit that if his dad asked, of course, Stoick was convinced if his son didn't eat more than his fill at every meal he'd never grow properly. Hiccup just wasn't up to eating around people who'd probably ask him if he was insane for letting Dagur have a weapon and going off on his own, and he knew they would.

 

Hiccup probably wouldn't have been so avoidant if he didn't feel like he was insane himself for letting Dagur do it.

 

"I shouldn't worry. He's fine. He's probably run off to live in the woods like a wild animal or something," Hiccup shrugged as he talked to Toothless over the sound of wind rushing past them. It just felt a little better to talk to the dragon than to admit he was talking to himself. "He's already halfway to wild anyway."

 

\- - -

 

Once they were home Hiccup opened the door and let Toothless in, and he made the Night Fury hold still so he could get the saddle and harness off of him for the night.

 

"And here I worried I'd have to send the rest of the riders out to look for you," Stoick said from where he was settled by the fire. It was just good-natured teasing, if he had really been worried Stoick wouldn't have been comfortable enough to sit around and do nothing.

 

"We'd have been able to outrace them anyway. Right, Toothless?" Hiccup smiled and rubbed his dragon's chin, getting a happy growl in return before Toothless jumped up to the loft so he could settle in for a little while.

 

"So, did you do what I asked?"

 

"Yeah, I did," Hiccup sighed and went to sit at the fire pit. Thiers was one of the houses where the Fireworms were fed well and three tiny dragons peered up at him from where they had been basking in the flames. "Dagur knows he has to leave, and he, uh..."

 

"He what?" There was a sternness to Stoick's voice and Hiccup wished he had just left it as 'yes.'

 

"He went hunting," Hiccup said.

 

"He did what?"

 

"Hunting. I told him if he's useful he might be able to stay, and he wants to stay so he's trying to be useful," Hiccup knew he was stumbling over the words but he couldn't really help it. There had to be something to convince his father. "Shouldn't that be enough? He actually wants to belong."

 

"He wants a lot of things, I'm sure, but belonging isn't one of them," Stoick said firmly. "I'm not giving him the chance to hurt you or anyone else on Berk."

 

"He's not going to hurt me," Hiccup huffed and looked down at the tiny dragons who were crawling up out of the pit to see if he was going to feed them.

 

"You can't be sure about that," Stoick said. There was a moment where Hiccup was tempted to tell him what had happened, and that he had a pretty good idea about what Dagur was going to do or not--but there was a loud knock at the door that kept him from saying anything too stupid.

 

"I got it," Hiccup got up and the Fireworms scampered back to the safety of the hot coals. He expected it to be Gobber come to spend some time with his dad before bed, but when Hiccup opened the door he just stared. It was Dagur with a crazed grin, banged up and blood-smeared and he was leaning against the doorframe to keep from falling over. The red-haired boy growled and wrenched up his kill in his good hand, he was holding a dead boar by the tusk.

 

"See?" Dagur growled it out, and it sounded like he had to have been screaming for a while with how rough his voice was. "I got one."

 

"Uh, yeah, that's... definitely dead," Hiccup wasn't sure what to do. His first urge was to get Dagur to sit down, but there was a dead animal to deal with and it wasn't really common for a hunter to bring his kill to the chief's hut. At all. Stoick came over and Hiccup just got out of his dad's way to let him deal with it.

 

"What do you think you're doing?" Stoick glared at the bruised berserker.

 

Dagur just grinned wider and laughed, "I got food."

 

"If you dragged it all the way here you can drag it to the kitchens," Stoick gestured toward the great hall, there was usually someone there even late, cleaning or preparing food for the next day. Dagur's grin faded at that and he shifted his grip on the dead pig.

 

"I'm tired," the redhead boy growled low, and he looked around Stoick. "I can do it with help. Come on, Hiccup."

 

"No," Stoick didn't give Hiccup the chance to agree or disagree on his own. "You've been around my son more than enough. Go back to your hut, and I'd suggest you start cleaning it out before you leave."

 

Stoick picked up the boar by its other tusk and hoisted it up onto one shoulder, pushing Dagur away from the door and back to the path, and with a shove Stoick sent the former chief stumbling back on the road that would lead to the hill he was staying on. For anyone on Berk that would have been enough to make them obey their chief, but for Dagur he just waited until Stoick was far enough away and came up to the door again to ease it open quietly.

 

"You can fly me up," Dagur called into the hut, more quietly than he usually yelled just in case the night was silent enough for Stoick to hear him.

 

"I already unharnessed Toothless," Hiccup said. He hadn't gone far from the door, he was in that awkward place where he felt like he should do something since the fight had happened around him, but there wasn't really anything for him to actually do.

 

"Then just come with me," Dagur let himself in and reached up to slide his hand through Hiccup's hair, it was thawed from sitting close to the fire but not quite dry yet.

 

"How about you start asking before you touch me?" Hiccup reached up and grabbed Dagur's wrist to pull his hand away. This was already awkward and confusing and weird and Dagur was doing nothing but making it worse.

 

"Fine. Can I touch you?"

 

Hiccup reached up to rub through his brown hair and to the back of his neck, not really sure, but ne nodded. "Yeah, alright. Just stop grabbing so much."

 

Dagur took his helmet off and set it aside on the table, and he leaned in to nudge his forehead against Hiccup's. It was... well, it wasn't grabbing, and Hiccup nudged back against him. Dagur seemed to be trying, at the very least, although he'd probably forget about or ignore the no-grabbing rule later.

 

"I'm going to stay," Dagur said it with a stern conviction that made Hiccup wonder if the older boy had gotten knocked on the head while he was out.

 

"My dad wasn't joking. You still have to leave--and just so you know? Bringing dead things to our house isn't the best way to win him over."

 

"I don't care about him," Dagur huffed and butted his head against Hiccup's some. "What about you? Were you impressed?"

 

Hiccup felt like saying a great many things Dagur could impress him with that would be better than a dead animal. Acting like a person instead of a psycho. Managing to not get on Stoick's nerves within one minute of the chief seeing him. Not being covered in blood.

 

"Yeah, a little," Hiccup finally said, and he reached to touch a smear of red on Dagur's arm. "How much of this is yours?"

 

"I don't know. Probably not a lot," Dagur looked down at the sticky blood Hiccup was touching, like it was the first time he noticed it. Hiccup groaned in frustration and reached up to pull on Dagur's hair.

 

"You need to be careful. Got that?" Hiccup glared at him and narrowed his eyes when Dagur just grinned wider.

 

"You care."

 

"Yeah, you got me, I care. Because I'm an idiot and you're too insane to care for yourself," Hiccup tugged on Dagur's hair again and sighed. He leaned in to kiss the other boy lightly before he pushed him away. "Go get cleaned up and go to bed. I'll see you tomorrow."

 

Hiccup followed Dagur to the door and stayed there long enough to be sure the other boy was actually going to obey his orders before closing himself inside the hut and going up to the loft with Toothless. The dragon raised his head and watched him as Hiccup sat down next to his friend and pressed his face into the smooth, black scales on the dragon's side.

 

"This is going to be the worst two days of my life," Hiccup mumbled.


	11. Chapter 11

After a night's rest and with a clear head Hiccup was able to decide that the next couple of days weren't going to be his worst. He had a lot of worst days in his life, and while this wasn't going to be any fun it wasn't going to nearly kill him. So it was actually going to be a pretty good few days just from a not-dying standpoint. Hiccup still didn't want to be around a lot of people, and while he had given up on finding Dagur a use on Berk Hiccup still brought the psychopath with him on one of the more mundane and boring tasks he had to do.

 

"Mildew got these to drive the dragons away, so we need to collect the blue oleander before the flowers open and burn them outside of the village," Hiccup explained as he stooped down to reach under a fallen tree to yank up a scraggily bush with a few blue buds.

 

"What happens when the flowers open?" Dagur wasn't as good at finding the plant at first, he hadn't ever seen it before, but once Hiccup could show him what they were looking for he was able to actually help. He didn't really have to exactly, Hiccup would have been fine with just company since this was one of the few jobs that Toothless couldn't come with him during, but the smaller teen wasn't going to complain about someone else yanking the weeds up.

 

"They make the dragons sick, really sick," Hiccup said as he stuffed the plant into a bag he had taken with him.

 

"Bet that was useful when you were killing them."

 

"Not really," Hiccup kicked over a fallen branch as he looked around again. "They weren't planted until after we figured out how to train dragons, and now they keep reseeding themselves everywhere. It's still easier to do this than to worry about getting Scaldron venom, though."

 

"Scaldron venom?" Dagur growled when he yanked on a bush and it didn't come up. He braced and grabbed farther down on the base of the plant and pulled on it again, grunting as he tried to yank it out with one hand.

 

"Yeah, Scaldron are the only thing immune to them. Here--let me," Hiccup went over to shoo Dagur away from the plant and get it up himself, but when he was just a couple of steps away Dagur finally managed to yank out the bud-covered bush. The berserker fell onto his ass with a grunt and he held up the plant for Hiccup to take. "Or not. Thanks."

 

"I don't need you to do everything," Dagur said and he started to get himself up slowly, a little more gingerly than usual as he made sure the fall hadn't jarred his damaged arm too badly.

 

"I know, but you're still healing."

 

"Anyway, what does it being immune have to do with its venom?"

 

"Scaldrons eat blue oleander when they can, they love it. They'll even come up to ships to get it, I found that out. Something about the plant affects their venom, and it can be used to cure other dragons," Hiccup said and he continued on in the forest when he decided they had gotten all of the offending plants they could find there. "I guess this isn't one of the things Nott uses?"

 

"Nah, I've never seen it before," Dagur followed after Hiccup and wiped his hand on his skirt where the plant's skin had split and it had bled on him.

 

"You're going to want to wash your clothes and yourself before you let Trapjaw close to you," Hiccup said. "It's not _as_ bad when the flowers aren't blooming, but dragons can still get really sick and he'd be hurting for a few days. I usually use a stream or a pond if I can find one before I even get back to the village."

 

"Then we'll do that," Dagur grinned at him. "We'll bathe together."

 

"Uh..." Hiccup shifted the bag up higher on his arm and looked away as his face burned. "That's not a good idea."

 

"We've gone swimming together before."

 

"That was different," Hiccup argued. "We were younger, and you didn't like me. And you tried to drown me."

 

"I can still try to drown you," Dagur laughed. "And I liked you."

 

"No you didn't, you tormented me," Hiccup went over to root through a cluster of bushes and hoped he'd find something to yank up and distract himself with.

 

"I tormented you because I liked you," Dagur didn't bother to follow Hiccup, he was still close enough to talk to easily. "And then I hated you for a while. Now I like you again."

 

"That's comforting," Hiccup rolled his eyes and gave up on the grasses giving him what he wanted. He moved on and Dagur came after him a few paces away.

 

"If I really wanted to hurt you I could have easily done it when you didn't have your Night Fury."

 

"Again, this is really comforting. Thanks. Besides, I wasn't the only one you were awful to. You traumatized Fishlegs, are you going to say you liked him too?" Hiccup looked back to Dagur, who was grinning far too smugly and when he laughed and started to talk Hiccup held up a hand. "Stop! Just stop. I don't want to hear it. Any of it."

 

"What, are you jealous?" Dagur laughed and came up beside him. "Don't worry, it's just you now."

 

"Pretty glad it wasn't just me before. If that's how you like someone I wouldn't have survived it if you didn't have someone else distracting you too," Hiccup said. He shifted the bag on his shoulder again and sighed. "Listen, nobody even knows I brought you out here, alright? Well... Gothi might know, she knows everything. And Astrid might have figured it out since I didn't ask her to come with me this time. But my dad doesn't know. I hope."

 

"So you don't want to do anything more in case we get caught?" Dagur asked, although it didn't really feel like a question.

 

"I... yeah," Hiccup sighed. It was just easier to go with that than to explain that Dagur might be wrong about Hiccup liking him--or even worse that Dagur might be right about it and Hiccup wasn't sure how to handle that just yet.

 

"If we get caught we're going to be punished, and I'm already being sent away" Dagur said in a low growl and he leaned his shoulder against Hiccup's. "We might as well do whatever we want."

 

"I want..." Hiccup mumbled it and kicked at a rock in the path. The metal of his foot hitting the rock at the right angle made a few sparks flash for a moment. He just wanted time to think and figure things out without a deadline hovering over him like a particularly fat Gronkle. Hiccup sighed and he was mostly talking to himself when he spoke again, "I want you to stay here. Just... a little while longer, at least."

 

"Then I'll do that," Dagur said. It almost convinced Hiccup and he smiled a little.

 

"Yeah, that's not going to happen," the brown haired boy said he let out a quiet and awkward laugh to go with the smile Dagur managed to coax out of him. "Nothing short of the gods sending a sign that you should stay here will make my dad agree to that."

 

"Maybe it'll be easier to persuade the gods, then," Dagur stooped down and pulled up a clump of blue oleander and looked down at it with a grin.

 

"How about you stop potentially annoying people and deities who might want you dead?" Hiccup sighed and he reached for the plant. Dagur held it farther away from him, and when Hiccup leaned in to grab for it again Dagur leaned in to kiss the smaller boy with a grin.

 

"Don't worry about it," Dagur smirked in a way that made Hiccup convinced that worrying about it was the only acceptable thing he should do. Dagur finally handed over the plant with a chuckle, "So, about bathing..."

 

Hiccup stuffed the plant into the bag and pushed Dagur away when he felt himself blushing again, "We'll talk about it when we're done, which we aren't yet. At all."


	12. Chapter 12

Bathing turned out to be more awkward sitting around than anything else. Hiccup and Dagur had collected as much of the blue oleander as they could find and dug a pit it could all be tossed into and burned in. Most of the day was gone by the time they had stopped at a pool a bit away from Dagur's hut, pretty much between it and the village. The fading light actually made Hiccup feel a little better. Later in the day meant darker and darker meant Hiccup could try and hide in the shadows of the trees when he stripped down and scrubbed the plant residue out of his clothes and off of his hair and skin. It wasn't like he wasn't used to bathing around people, but those people tended to be his dad or his friends, people he grew up with and knew and who he was used to making fun of how skinny he was. Hiccup didn't want to deal with Dagur calling him a runt, or if Dagur was actually going to convince Hiccup of doing something that was a _really_ bad idea.

 

 _It's not like I would_ , Hiccup thought to himself as he wrung the water out his tunic. _It's a bad idea. And Dagur bites too much when he kisses, he'd probably take a chunk out of me if we were doing more than that. And if we did he'd tell someone, he'll probably yell it off the side of the boat when he leaves just so he can make my dad angry._ Hiccup pulled on the still-wet tunic and managed to get the cloth to somewhat behave and go down. They weren't too far from home, he could just put it up next to the fire pit when he got back.

 

"Do you need any help?" he called out and looked to the other side of the pool where he had made Dagur stay. The older boy was in pretty much the same state, although he was going slower with scrubbing himself and getting his clothes clean with one hand, and he seemed less inclined to hide himself or try to cover up again.

 

"I can take care of myself fine," Dagur said as he scooped water up with his helmet to pour it out his head, and he scruffed his fingers through his wet hair after to scrub it clean. He still looked too wild without his hair in the braid, even after Hiccup made it look slightly less... well, terrible. If Dagur didn't have the helmet his hair seemed determined to stick up and out like it was a sort of mane a while animal would have instead of a person.

 

"If you want me to believe that then maybe you should keep your cast from getting wet," Hiccup collected the rest of his wet clothes and started to get dressed.

 

"It's fine."

 

"Of course it is, everything's fine and you're fine and that's why you still wince," Hiccup sat down next to Dagur at the edge of the pool and reached down to scoop up water in his hands so he could start scrubbing over Dagur's hair himself.

 

"You think I'm lying?" Dagur asked as he nudged into Hiccup's hands.

 

"Of course I do," the smaller boy grumbled. "You lie all the time, you lie and you're weird and you bring dead things to my house--"

 

"I only brought the one boar."

 

"So far."

 

Dagur grinned at that and laughed, "So why do you like me?"

 

"I don't know," Hiccup admitted. It was getting hard to tell himself that he didn't like Dagur at all, he did worry about him, and spending time around him was nice in a way Hiccup knew it shouldn't be. Most of the day they spent pulling up flowers had been pleasant. "Why do you like me?"

 

"You saved me, kept me around," Dagur shrugged a little as Hiccup reached to get another handful of water.

 

"Yeah, but you said you liked me before. Why?" Hiccup rubbed the water over Dagur's hand and arm, trying to scrub away the green places that the oleander stained when Dagur had yanked up some of the more difficult shrubs.

 

"You're small and I liked that."

 

"...That's it? You liked me because I'm..." Hiccup trailed off as he tried to think of a good word for it, but he gave up and just grumbled.

 

"Yeah. You thought there was something else to it?"

 

"Kind of, but I'm not really sure why," Hiccup admitted. He had hoped that if Dagur gave him some idea of what made the berserker interested then Hiccup could compare it to how he felt. But sometimes huge things don't start huge, it starts with a feeling of pity, or trust, or compassion, and it grows from there.

 

"Help me get dressed and come up with me to my hut," Dagur interrupted Hiccup's thoughts as he nudged his forehead against the smaller boy's. He took his hand back from Hiccup's and reached for his wet clothes to start yanking them on.

 

"I thought you could take care of yourself fine," Hiccup smiled a little.

 

"Fine, don't help, but you're still coming to my place."

 

\---

 

It was likely a very bad idea, but Hiccup had agreed and gone up to Dagur's hut instead of returning home. He wished he hadn't by the time he was at Dagur's door. The night got darker and colder and his wet clothes were making him shiver by now.

 

"You better have a fire going," Hiccup grumbled as they went inside. He went to the fire pit as soon as they were in, and there wasn't a fire but there were a few live coals still.

 

"It's fine, stop worrying," Dagur went to the table to scoop Trapjaw up off of it--the Terror greeted Dagur and the rude awakening by biting down on his bicep and even from where Hiccup was sitting he could see the berserker wince before continuing to the pit. "Put wood in there, will you?"

 

Hiccup didn't bother asking what the point was when the dragon was more interested in biting than being helpful and he scooped up an armful of firewood to toss in. Dagur sat on the edge of the fire pit and with the little dragon still attached to him he snapped his fingers. Trapjaw let go of Dagur's arm and spat a small fireball on the wood--and the redhead visibly relaxed once he wasn't being clamped onto anymore.

 

"See? It's fine--dammit!" Dagur cussed when Trapjaw turned and bit down on Dagur's arm again. Hiccup reached to start rubbing over Trapjaw's throat and cheeks, trying to get the little dragon relaxed enough he could be pried off.

 

"How much has he been biting you?"

 

"I don't know, the normal amount?" Dagur tried to relax and not put any resistance that would make the Terror bite worse, but it wasn't really helping. "A couple of times a day I guess."

 

"Terrible Terrors have venom, you know," Hiccup frowned, but he eventually managed to find a spot under Trapjaw's chin and coaxed the Terror to let go as he purred and Hiccup picked up the little purple dragon to move it to the other side of the fire pit carefully. "If he's been biting you a lot it might be why your arm isn't healing as well. It's either keeping the bone from knitting or it's just making the pain there worse."

 

"Huh," Dagur flexed his arm once the Terror was removed and frowned at the blood that was welling in the scrapes left by the little dragon's teeth. "You're going to have to take him."

 

"I'm sure we can teach him to stop biting," Hiccup reached up to hold Dagur's arm so he could inspect it, but the bleeding wasn't too bad and the bites looked like they should scab over fine. "We just need to give him positive reinforcement, give him a reward when he doesn't bite or when he lets go quickly."

 

"No, I mean you have to take him because I'm leaving."

 

Hiccup paused at that and looked up at Dagur. That was actually the first time the bigger boy had admitted he wasn't going to somehow force a way for himself to stay.

 

"Your dad said I have to clean this place out. Well, Trapjaw's the only thing I have here. Just take him when you go, and if you don't want to teach him not to bite give him to Snotwhatever since he wanted him back so bad."

 

"Snotlout," Hiccup corrected. He looked to the little purple dragon who had settled down on the stone wall built around the fire pit. If it wasn't for the fact Trapjaw was staring at them with narrowed eyes he would have almost looked content there. Maybe he was content, though, Trapjaw always sort of looked really angry about something. "Are you sure? Maybe you can take him with, or--"

 

"Just take him," Dagur said firmly. "I don't know where I'm going to end up. He'll be happier here."

 

"But..." Hiccup wasn't sure what else to say and he just let the word linger and fade. There wasn't anything to add. It was jarring to see Dagur actually showing some concern for something else, especially for a dragon that liked to bite him as much as it did. Dagur got up off the stone around the fire pit and reached to haul Hiccup up with him, and Hiccup didn't put up a fight against being picked up or being taken to the door.

 

"I'm leaving tomorrow, right?" Dagur asked, and Hiccup just nodded. "Do you know what time?"

 

"Noon, probably," Hiccup said as the bigger boy opened the door. "Johann likes giving people time to make last-minute purchases."

 

Dagur nodded, "Alright. Then take him, will you?"

 

"I will, just..." Hiccup paused and looked at the Terror curled up near the fire, then to Dagur, and Hiccup closed the door again before the older boy had a chance to push him back into the cold dusk air. "Just not right now."


	13. Chapter 13

When Dagur kissed Hiccup and pressed him against the closed door the smaller boy welcomed it. It was a moment when he didn't have to think, and he didn't have to worry about the cold outside with another warm body pressed up against his. It was just lips and teeth and Dagur pressing his tongue into Hiccup's mouth as he growled low and possessively against the shorter boy. Even if Hiccup was still confused about almost everything he liked this, he liked that it was easy to see and immediate when Dagur wanted him. It felt good. But he still grabbed the older boy's wrist when Dagur had started to yank up Hiccup's damp tunic.

 

"I thought you said--"

 

"I said I wasn't leaving yet," Hiccup said firmly, but he relaxed his grip on Dagur's hand and just rubbed the back of it with his thumb. "But I don't... want to do anything if you're not going to be there later."

 

"Even if it's bad?"

 

"If it's bad then I want you there even more so I can get Toothless to blast you for ruining it," Hiccup huffed, but he smiled and laughed and Dagur grinned with him. "But... really. Just, not tonight. Not if you think you're really leaving tomorrow."

 

Dagur frowned at that, but he didn't seem angry, and eventually he sighed and pulled back as he tugged Hiccup's tunic back down into place. "Alright, nothing tonight. So what did you want to stay for?"

 

"To talk before you go," Hiccup pushed Dagur back and toward the fire again. Hiccup was still wet and at least sitting near the heat seemed like a better idea than being held against the drafty door. "Do you know where you're going to end up?"

 

"No, not yet. Do you think if Johann makes his rounds and comes back to Berk I can get off here?" Dagur grinned as he sat down near the fire. He grabbed Hiccup's vest and hauled him down next to him, making the smaller boy stumble and fall with a grunt, and Dagur wrapped an arm around the dragon rider and just held him there. It might've been sweet if Dagur hadn't just knocked the wind out of Hiccup.

 

"Doubt it," Hiccup said when he was breathing right again. He elbowed Dagur's stomach to get a matching grunt of pain from the other boy before he settled in against his side. "Besides, Johann goes out farther than the archipelago. He gets treasures and stories from all over. He's had books that we can't even read sometimes. We don't always know when he's coming back, or if he's going to."

 

Dagur shifted and made Hiccup tuck under his chin, and after a bit of squirming to make sure he wasn't going to lean on or bother Dagur's wrapped arm Hiccup relaxed into the hug. After a bit it seemed like the closeness offended Trapjaw and the Terrible Terror came around the stone surrounding the fire pit to squawk and paw at Hiccup's leg. When he and Dagur didn't immediately separate the small dragon climbed up into Hiccup's lap and walked across him, and the Terror wedged himself in between Hiccup and Dagur with a huff.

 

"I think he doesn't like having to share someone he actually likes," Hiccup laughed. It was almost cute the way the unpleasant little creature had bonded with the larger and just as unpleasant one. There was no way Hiccup was going to be able to use Trapjaw's affection as an arguing point with his father, though.

 

"Don't let him come to the docks when I ship out. I don't want him trying to follow me," Dagur said. He shifted and tried to figure out if he could manage to pet the dragon while still being as close to Hiccup as he was, but he just resettled and gave up on it. Dagur didn't want to let go of the thin boy and the dragon seemed content enough.

 

"Yeah, I can do that," Hiccup said as his mood fell. He put his hand on Trapjaw's side lightly, and after a narrow-eyed glare from the Terror Hiccup started to pet and rub over the purple scales until the dragon eventually relaxed and put his head down. Dagur didn't say anything, but he held Hiccup tighter for a moment and kissed the top of his head, and if the bigger boy hadn't seemed to resigned to his fate Hiccup would have thought he was being possessive again.

 

\---

 

The twins were having fun with Hiccup's latest project in the academy and Hiccup was content to watch as he leaned on the iron railing and chains surrounding what was once the arena. He wasn't entirely happy with the way his latest project had turned out. The idea had been to contain Hideous Zippleback gas in a small clay pot that would break easily, with something inside to spark it. Unfortunately the idea hadn't quite come to pass. Hiccup had used flint and pebbles and scrap shards of iron inside the pots, but they amount of shaking that had to happen before he'd get lucky and the flint would strike another of the little bits inside of the pot the right way meant when the pot was thrown it didn't have a reliable time until detonation. If it detonated at all. More often than not the pot smashed and just released a puff of green, stinky gas, and on rare occasions it did blast apart it did it while the user was still holding the pot or had just barely begun to throw it. Useless for what Hiccup wanted to do with it, but Ruffnut and Tuffnut were having fun trying to smash each other with the pots and make the other twin breathe in gas until they passed out.

 

"You going to stop them anytime soon?" Astrid asked as she came up beside him.

 

"Nah. They'll run out of ammo eventually," Hiccup shrugged.

 

"Hey, have you been alright?" Astrid reached up to grab onto one of the chain lengths to lean her weight on it, trying to put herself between Hiccup and the twins.

 

"Yeah. Why?" Hiccup glanced away when his friend kept watching him, convinced she was going to know it was a lie.

 

"Because you're been weird since... honestly, for as long as I've known you," she teased and Hiccup smiled a little. "But weirder than usual. You usually talk more, you're around more, you've just been... distant."

 

"I guess so," Hiccup looked back at her, not really sure if he should admit it or not.

 

"Like with Toothless. I mean, I love Toothless as much as anyone else, but when I have to watch him it's usually for a couple of hours at the most. You were gone all day yesterday, he was starting to get worried."

 

"I know. I couldn't get him onto his own bed last night, he came into my bed and I pretty much had to sleep on top of him," Hiccup smiled a little even though he felt guilty. "I was collecting and burning blue oleander, though."

 

"Usually you don't take that long. Or do it at all, there are vikings without dragons yet that are willing to take that job. Like Bucket and Mulch. We could probably even make Gustav do it."

 

"I, uh..." Hiccup shifted and pushed himself up from where he was leaning. Ruff threw one of the gas pots at Tuff who just managed to avoid taking it to the face, and when the pot crashed into a shield instead it ignited and blasted apart the metal and wood. The twins were still for a moment, then Tuffnut grinned and yelled how awesome it was he almost blew up and Ruffnut agreed. They started throwing the few remaining pots at the shields adorning the walls and seemed to be doing much better at getting the resulting destruction they wanted that way. Hiccup sighed and looked to Astrid when he was sure the explosions would cover up most of what he was about to say to anyone who wasn't right next to him.

 

"I was out with Dagur."

 

"You're usually out with Dagur anymore," Astrid said, a little harder than how she had been teasing before. "He's leaving today, you know."

 

"I know, and I haven't seen him since last night. It's just..." Hiccup sighed and wished this was easier. The problem was Astrid was the easiest person to talk to, if something was hard to talk to her about then it would be impossible to talk to anyone else about. "I kissed him. I mean, he kissed me, first, but I let him, and then I did it the next time, and... just don't tell anyone, alright?

 

Hiccup went back to slumping over and buried his face in his arms. He sounded so stupid, and Astrid was being way too quiet for way too long. She was probably waiting to punch him until he was looking at her again.

 

"Do you... like him?" Astrid asked hesitantly, she was confused, but Hiccup seemed fairly confused by it too.

 

"I don't know. Maybe? I think I might," Hiccup pushed himself up to look at her. "But I don't know for sure."

 

"Does he like you?"

 

"I thought he did, but if he liked me he'd want to say goodbye, right?" Hiccup said. And that was part of the bigger problem--the part of the problem he wasn't going to tell Astrid about because she'd probably go get a knife and solve Hiccup's Dagur problem for him. If he had let Dagur... if they had actually had sex, would the other boy still be around now? Or would he have left faster because he would have gotten what he wanted? And now that the deadline was coming up Hiccup felt worse about saying no. Not just because he was still wondering how Dagur would have reacted--although that was part of it--but because with the prospect of Dagur going away he wanted him more now. Hiccup just wasn't sure if that was only because he knew he wouldn't get the chance for it again.

 

"I would have said goodbye," Astrid said and turned to lean on the railing as she crossed her arms. What small sliver of approval Dagur might have managed to garner from her was gone. She narrowed her eyes as she looked over the village and reached to punch Hiccup's shoulder.

 

"What?" Hiccup winced and rubbed at his arm, then looked to where Astrid was still glaring. Dagur was heading toward the docks, his helmet an obvious sight even from where they were, with a pack slung over his good shoulder. He was already leaving.

 

"Come on," Astrid said and she signaled Stormfly to come over so she could get up onto the Nadder's back. "If he's not going to say goodbye on his own I'm going to make him."

 

Hiccup glared at Dagur's back and as awkward and confused and betrayed as he felt he still nodded and got up onto Toothless' saddle.


	14. Chapter 14

"What are you doing here?" Dagur jerked back and nearly stumbled when Toothless landed close enough to nearly be on top of him. Hiccup glared at him as he settled back on the saddle, there was a lot he wanted to say but Astrid got to it first.

 

"You're leaving? Just like that?" she called down as Stormfly landed in Dagur's path. The Deadly Nadder flared her wings and screeched, a usual habit for a Sharp class dragon to try to keep its target in place.

 

"What do you care?" Dagur growled and stooped down under Stormfly's head and wing to keep going. The blue dragon cocked her head and made a confused chirp, Dagur had managed to step into her blind spot to escape, and Stormfly turned to follow his scent instead.

 

"Fine, then what about me?" Hiccup called out and Toothless ran over when his rider urged him. "You're just leaving without saying anything?"

 

Dagur paused and looked at Toothless instead of Hiccup, then at Stormfly. "You can come with. Just you."

 

Hiccup frowned at that, he wasn't sure what he wanted but he got off of his dragon to have Toothless walk beside him, "Alright."

 

"No, _just_ you. No dragon," Dagur said and he started walking away from them again. Hiccup looked up to Astrid and she shrugged back at him.

 

"If he does anything he deserves to be blasted for at least push him in the ocean," she said. She wasn't sure what was entirely going on with Hiccup and Dagur, if they liked each other or if Dagur was just being cruel, but honestly she didn't need to know. Hiccup was upset and Dagur was somehow managing to be a bigger jerk than usual. She just wanted to help her friend feel better, so she was going to help him get closure, or help him beat up Dagur, whichever one he wanted. "And you can always yell for me, too."  


Hiccup smiled a little at that and rubbed over Toothless' head, "Alright, bud. Just stay here and play with Stormfly for a bit, alright? I'll be back soon."

 

The Night Fury nudged against Hiccup's side with a low affectionate growl and Hiccup rubbed under his chin before following after Dagur. He had to hurry to catch up, Dagur wasn't dragging his feet with getting out of the village, if anything he was walking faster than usual.

 

"Why didn't you want me to bring Toothless?" Hiccup huffed when he finally got to Dagur's side.

 

"I didn't want to have to worry about you getting yelled at for suddenly flying out to get me."

 

"Yeah, trust me, I don't feel like flying out to save you right now," Hiccup narrowed his eyes at Dagur, ready to just yell at him but not quite able to find the right words to yell.

 

"Why are you angry?" Dagur asked, and he actually seemed genuinely confused.

 

"That's it? That's all you ask? Why I'm angry? Why do you _think_ I'm angry? I haven't seen you all day, you're leaving, you didn't say goodbye, you weren't even _going_ to say goodbye!" Hiccup finally managed to start yelling and once he did he couldn't stop. He didn't want to stop. He wanted to beat Dagur over the head with whatever he had in his pack. Dagur's pace finally slowed to something more reasonable as they walked. He was staring at Hiccup, then he was looking away.

 

"I don't like saying goodbye," the bigger boy admitted after a bit, but it didn't sound honest. "Where's Trapjaw?"

 

"He's at home," Hiccup grumbled, and he glared at Dagur before just looking back to the docks they were making their way down. "He figured out I have Fireworms and last time I saw him he was trying to pat them without getting singed."

 

Dagur nodded and made his way down the dock towards Johann's boat. Hiccup was tempted to turn around and leave him at that. He wasn't sure what he had expected, but actually being there with Dagur when the other boy wasn't interested was awkward, more than when Dagur was overly interested in him. Dagur wasn't even walking close to him, he was putting at least an arm's length between them the whole time. They were almost to the boat by the time Hiccup thought of leaving him, though, and Hiccup had never been good at not seeing something through.

 

"Ah, and here I thought you'd be more difficult to wrangle, Master Dagur," Johann said as he greeted them. "You certainly seem far more willing than Stoick alluded to. Pull up the gangplank once you come aboard, will you?"

 

"Yeah, fine," Dagur said. He paused before actually going up into the boat and looked at Hiccup like he was going to say something, but nothing came out.

 

"...You're not wearing your paint," Hiccup finally said. There wasn't anything else he could think of. He hadn't even thought of that until he was looking at Dagur's face.

 

"I didn't have anyone to put it on," Dagur shrugged.

 

"I could do it," the smaller boy offered and took a step closer, but Dagur started up into the boat as soon as Hiccup closed the space between them.

 

"I didn't bring it with."

 

Hiccup didn't want to stay around after that. Dagur didn't care. It was painfully obvious Dagur didn't care. And if he wasn't going to care then Hiccup wasn't going to care either. He stalked back up the docks, as angry as he was hurt, and the dumbest part about it was he was angry about the paint. He had gotten that for Dagur, Dagur had said that was the reason he thought Hiccup cared about him, and he didn't even _bring it_? Dagur didn't even have anything else, all he had was his armor and the paint and the Terrible Terror, and he gave the Terror away already!

 

 _Wait..._ Hiccup paused and frowned as he thought. _That's right... Dagur doesn't have anything. He was wearing his armor, he gave me Trapjaw yesterday, and he didn't have the paint... So what's in the bag?_


	15. Chapter 15

"To be off once again, to treasures and isles unknown and well-known alike!" Johann's attempted hospitality to his guest was lost. Dagur was still leaning over the edge and staring down into the water, his bag under his good arm. Johann sighed and figured it was best to simply give up trying to be friendly if the young man had no interest in it. "Alright. Well, don't jump in, and don't lose your things overboard. I can't guarantee I'll be able to rescue either."

 

Dagur just grunted in response and waited for the footsteps signaling that Johann had walked away. The berserker boy turned to glance over his shoulder to make sure he wasn't being paid attention to before he pulled up his pack to open it. He had to tug at the clumsy knot he had managed with one hand too long and eventually he just bit down on it and yanked it open. A blue flower fluttered out from the leather and drifted down to the water, and after it Dagur dumped out the rest of the bag's contents. Blue oleander--the flowers and buds, the stems and leaves, the roots, and a few clumps of dirt Dagur hadn't managed to shake off--splashed into the water. Dagur set the bag down by his feet with a grin and waited.

 

He never had any intention of leaving. He just needed it to look like the fates wanted him to stay, and the easiest way to do that was to make it look like some force of nature wasn't going to let him leave. As soon as a Scaldron caught scent of the plants and came to attack the boat he'd have that. ...Assuming he'd survive the attack, of course.

 

\- - -

 

"Hey," Astrid greeted Hiccup when he came back to where his dragon was playing with hers. Stormfly had picked up a length of rope and was running around to show off her prize, with Toothless chasing after the fraying end and trying to pounce on it as it moved. "How did it go?"

 

"Uh... bad. And confusing," Hiccup shrugged and he called over Toothless to rub over the dragon's neck to comfort himself.

 

"Did you at least get a goodbye?"

 

"...No," Hiccup said after taking a moment to remember the exchange.

 

"If you use the crossbow on your shield you could probably hit him from here," Astrid offered. It was a lie, even with Hiccup being a good shot with it he wouldn't be able to get the arrow all the way to where the boat was now.

 

"Yeah, I don't think so," Hiccup smiled a little and looked back to the ocean, but when he was looking at Johann's ship sailing away he just had that same, betrayed feeling well up in him again.

 

"How about Stormfly? She's a pretty good shot at a distance."

 

In spite of himself Hiccup smiled again, and he started to say something but it stopped in his throat. There was something moving around in the water under the boat. Something big. Hiccup didn't trust it to still be there if he looked away from it when he called back to Astrid, "What is that?"

 

Astrid came up beside him to watch the ship and the water, "I don't... oh."

 

A head rose up from the water, dark blue and almost looking like the ocean itself came to life in that one little spot. It nosed at the water by the boat, then rose up next to it and leaned hard against the ship's side, hard enough to make it tip badly.

 

"It's a Scaldron," Hiccup was up on Toothless' saddle as soon as he said it.

 

"There's no point in revenge if you don't get to punish someone yourself," Astrid said, and she called over Stormfly to get up onto her Nadder. Hiccup was just glad that he didn't have to explain why he wanted to immediately help as they took off to the boat.

 

\- - -

 

Dagur stumbled and fell when the boat rocked violently, but he managed to keep his wrapped arm from getting too hurt by it. The Scaldron wasn't really attacking, it was curious, nosing in the boat since that was the only place in the ocean where the blue oleander could have come from. The great dragon sniffed the air, leaning over the boat and sniffing where Dagur had been leaning with his pack before, then turned to look at Dagur himself. He still smelled like the plant, and so did the bag by his feet. He didn't have time before to try and wash off after yanking up what he had managed to find and bring.

 

"No, no, no," Dagur tried to stand up to get away from the dragon. He knew he still stank like the plant, it was why he hadn't let any other dragons near him all day. He just didn't realize until there was a huge, dripping head right in front of him that there was another reason he should have tried to wash off after collecting it. Dagur got onto his feet, but as soon as he did the ship lurched again and he pitched forward and slid down the suddenly badly sloping deck.

 

"If it keeps going it's going to capsize the ship!" Johann yelled from where he was clinging to some of the rigging. He looked through the crates and barrels, trying to find something that would ward the beast away, but all he managed to do was scatter his wares and they collected at the bottom of the sloping deck by the Scaldron's front feet. The Scaldron looked at the trinkets that littered around it's claws, curious since the dragon wasn't really aggressive at the moment. He leaned his long neck in and sniffed at Dagur and was nearly close enough to the young man to rub the wet, scaly nose against him. Dagur winced and braced for whatever the dragon might do, and he reached to grab onto his bag. He figured if he smelled like the flower then it probably did too, and he might be able to distract the Scaldron with it.

 

Suddenly the ship seemed to right itself. Dagur fell onto his back at the sudden change with a grunt, then back down toward the Scaldron--that was still holding onto the deck. It hadn't let go and that was when Dagur realized the wood under him was letting out a loud, constant creaking and groaning. The ship wasn't being tipped over anymore, it was being forced to hold more weight than it could manage. Dagur looked behind him, and there was a Scaldron just a little bit bigger than the first one, bright green and with its eyes narrowed. There wasn't just one dragon attracted to the blue oleander this time, but from the way the Scaldron were glaring at one another they weren't planning to share. And there was only one thing on the ship that still smelled like the flowers. The berserker tried to get up and run away, to get to some part of the boat where he could hide behind something, but as soon as he was moving the dragons caught sight of him and turned on him.

 

Two giant and greedy mouths snapped behind him. The blue one lunged again and grabbed Dagur by his boot on the second try and hoisted him up into the air to show off the prize. The other Scaldron wasn't amused, it screamed and lunged up from the ocean, tipping the boat farther toward its side of the sea and spilling saltwater into the ship as it flared it's wings. The blue Scaldron pulled back, and for Johann it was a stroke of much needed luck when both of the dragons let go of the ship together once the boy was taken. It wasn't great, the boat suddenly sprung up in the water at the lack of pressure, everything fell over and spilled into the water on the deck and a few things were pitched overboard, but the ship was still up and Johann wasn't stuck in the water with the fighting Scaldron.

 

Dagur wasn't nearly so lucky. He was still dangling from one Scaldron's mouth as the other screamed and lunged closer to try to steal the opposing dragon's prize. The berserker had to move to avoid being bitten, twisting to bend away from the huge maw and kicking and shoving at the mouth he was stuck in to get the beast to loosen its grip. He managed to scrape out part of his boot wand then the blue Scaldron turned on the other to scream at it, and the young man dropped down into the ocean. Dagur clawed to the surface of the water and gasped in a deep breath that had been knocked out of him when he first hit the surface, and the noise attracted the dragons back to him. The green Scaldron took it as it's turn to try and snatch Dagur up, but before it had lunged and grabbed him from out of the ocean a stream of boiling water hit its neck. Steam flashed up where the overheated water hit the ocean and Dagur winced and turned away to try to avoid the scalding spray. When his eyes were closed there was a sudden hit from behind that made Dagur cry out and he was in the air again. He thrashed to get away from the dragon's mouth before he even opened his eyes.

 

"Stop wiggling around, you're going to get dropped!"

 

Dagur looked up finally and saw nothing but pale yellow scales. He was wrapped in Stormfly's talons and being carried back to the boat where Hiccup and Toothless had already landed to defend it from the Scaldron. Normally that would be the right course of action, but the Scaldron weren't interested in the ship. They were interested in Dagur. One of the sea dragons screamed again and Dagur wiggled around in Stormfly's grip. The Nadder nearly did drop him, she had to relax and readjust her grip with how he was moving, but Dagur got the empty pack out from her talons where it had been pinched against him and threw it down to the Scaldron. He was just trying to distract them and it worked, as soon as there was something else that smelled right the dragons both lunged at it. One had the bulk of the bag in its mouth, the other just had the strap, and they started to pull on it when Astrid, Stormfly, and Dagur landed in the ship. The leather didn't last long and the Scaldron tore it in half easily. A blue, badly bruised, and wet flower fell from the pack and the Scaldron with the strap in its mouth spat it out to grab the plant, then dived down in the water to swim off with the other screeching and following after it.

 

"I've never seen them attack so!" Johann cried out. He hadn't seen the flower fall, he had been too busy trying to stand in the cluttered, ruined mess of his ship. Hiccup and Astrid had seen it, though, and they looked to each other, then to Dagur who was sitting up slowly and breathing hard after the ordeal as the trader continued. "I'm sorry, I know this goes against your father's wishes, Hiccup--but I can't continue while thinking those beasts might be just under my feet! I'm coming back to Berk, I have to make sure the ship's not too badly damaged after that, and I need to make sure those dragons are far, far away when I do ship off!"

 

Hiccup didn't argue with Johann, he just nodded and said, "Yeah, that's alright. He'll understand. And we'll stay with you to make sure you're protected if they come back."

 

Hiccup was sure they weren't going to come back, though. The Scaldron had gotten what they wanted--and so did Dagur.


	16. Chapter 16

"The repairs to Johann's ship are going to take almost a week," Hiccup said as he wrapped Dagur's arm carefully. The berserker was in his hut since the crazed boy had come out of the boat with the plastered bandages soaked through and ruined and he had looked half drowned. Dagur perked up some as soon as Gothi left, so he had probably faked looking so pitiful. Or whatever tea he had gotten from the village elder had actually helped quickly for once. Hiccup watched Dagur grin and he huffed at the older boy, "And you don't care at all, do you?"

 

"Of course I care," Dagur shrugged and grinned wider. "It means I have at least a week more."

 

"For what, to plan something else stupid and insane?" Astrid said from where she was sitting on one of the three chairs in Hiccup's home with her boots propped up on the edge of the fire pit.

 

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Dagur growled, and Hiccup shoved at his side.

 

"Oh knock it off," the smaller boy said sharply. "We both know what you did so you might as well just admit it. You lured those Scaldron to the ship."

 

Dagur huffed and slouched some in his own chair--which was actually Stoick's--and Hiccup finished binding his arm.

 

"...Stormfly and Toothless aren't sick," Astrid said after a little while when the silence had started getting awkward. "So, you know. Thanks for not getting close to them before."

 

"And there don't seem to be any other sick dragons," Hiccup added. He pulled back some when he was sure he was finished and started collecting the excess bandages, and when Trapjaw jumped up onto the table the dragon rider tried to shoo him off without getting bitten. "And I am _really_ ready for you to take him back home."

 

Trapjaw barked angrily at Hiccup and hopped sideways away from his waving hands. The Terror looked around at the things on the table around him, which was mostly clean and sparse. Trapjaw then did the most logical thing to a cranky dragon and flopped over onto one of the few things actually there, the letter that still hadn't been responded to. Stoick had been too busy that last couple of days to want to spend time deciphering the terrible writing, and without an indicator of who it had come from there wasn't a point to it.

 

"I don't know, he looks happy here," Dagur chuckled and he reached for the dragon. He jerked his hand back when Trapjaw snapped his teeth at him. "See? Happy."

 

"Yeah, he looks ecstatic," Astrid rolled her eyes. "So why did you even want dragons attacking you, anyway?"

 

"Hiccup said it best," Dagur shrugged. When even Hiccup gave him a confused look Dagur sighed and explained, "You said Stoick wouldn't let me stay without some sign from the gods. You were joking, but if he actually _is_ getting a sign..."

 

"...Or at least looks like he is," Hiccup finished. "You know that's stupid, right?"

 

"I'm back on Berk," Dagur grinned.

 

"Temporarily," Astrid cut in. "Stoick still wants you gone."

 

"Then I just need a better sign," Dagur said, confident to the point that he sounded as if he didn't think his plan could fail at all.

 

"Is this the kind of thing you need an accomplice for, or should I be willingly ignorant of whatever dumb thing you're going to do next?" Astrid asked.

 

"Ignorant," Dagur said, and at the same time Hiccup chimed in with "Accomplice."

 

"That sure cleared things up," Astrid said and looked back to the fire and the Fireworm that was starting to nose curiously at her boot.

 

\- - -

 

While Stoick had been willing to let Dagur stay in his home long enough to be patched up he wasn't willing to let the teen stay longer than that. Once Dagur was bandaged again and able to walk he was sent out. Hiccup had waited a few minutes then went to see if Dagur needed any help, and Trapjaw trotted along behind the scrawny rider with the letter securely fastened between his tiny teeth.

 

"Come on, give that back," Hiccup stooped down to grab one end of the rolled paper and he tried to pull it from the little dragon's mouth. Trapjaw growled and pulled back on the letter until Hiccup finally let go once it was starting to rip. "Why do you even want that thing, anyway?"

 

"What is it?" Dagur looked back at them and paused, and with the bigger boy staying still Trapjaw trotted faster so he could hop up on the back of Dagur's leg and start climbing up him. Dagur winced and hissed as the little dragon's claws sank into him, but other than tensing he didn't do anything. Trapjaw settled across Dagur's shoulders and made a sound that almost could have been a content purr.

 

"I don't know, Johann brought us a letter but we can't tell who it's from or what it's for," Hiccup said as he came beside Dagur, who started walking again once Trapjaw settled.

 

"Elgh, it smells like my sister," Dagur made a face as he held one end of the letter and sniffed it. Trapjaw finally let go of the paper, although that had more to do with the fact there was a small bird singing in a tree that needed to be screamed at than because of any training or taming Dagur had managed to do. The helmeted boy huffed and tried to unroll the letter, he managed to get the bottom unrolled and snorted, "Well, that makes sense. It _is_ from my sister."

 

"It is?" Hiccup frowned and took the scroll to unroll it fully and look over it. It was still ugly writing and uglier doodles. "How can you tell?"

 

"She doesn't write or read well. She's not illiterate, she just doesn't always understand the letters right," Dagur said and he pointed to the splotch of ink at the bottom, "So she tries to draw."

 

"So, that's..."

 

"The night, Nott. See, all black with stars?" Dagur pointed out the voids in the ink and it clicked in Hiccup's head.

 

"Oh! So this is... the day? Dagur? Wait, she wants to see you?" Hiccup looked back at him.

 

"I guess so," Dagur shrugged.

 

"Why?"

 

"She probably wants to test out the plants she wants to collect on me."

 

"Wait, this is great. This means you need to stay here until your sister can see you, right?"

 

"Probably not. If Bola knew Nott wanted to send a letter she would have gotten someone to write it for her, and if Bola doesn't know about it it's an unofficial request."

 

"No, see, the right response is 'of course, Hiccup, you're brilliant,'" Hiccup huffed, and he smiled a little. Then a thought came to him and he added, "You're not lying about this, right?"

 

"Not this time," Dagur said. "Although that's about as well as I can draw right now."

 

"You can draw?" Hiccup asked automatically, he was still looking over the letter as they walked.

 

"Yeah. It was just easier to draw things on notes when we were growing up than to try to write something down and wait for her to figure it out," Dagur shrugged. "Well. I _could_ draw. I won't know if I still can until I can use my arm."

 

"If you stop falling in water and getting attacked by dragons the wrappings can come off in a month," Hiccup rolled the letter back up and stuck it into his belt where hopefully Trapjaw wouldn't try to get at it.


	17. Chapter 17

"Hey, we heard Dagur's still here," Tuffnut grinned as he came up beside Astrid.

 

"So he's staying now, right?" Ruffnut came up on Astrid's other side with a grin that was just a little sharper. Astrid had long ago gotten used to the twins basically surrounding anyone they wanted to talk to, the only thing she really needed to keep an eye out was if she had to back up or duck if it looked like the two were going to hit or headbutt one another.

 

"He's staying for the week," Astrid shrugged and hoped she wouldn't have to try and explain Hiccup's new... _relationship_ with the deranged freak. She didn't even fully understand it herself. Thankfully Ruff and Tuff seemed completely uninterested in why Dagur was still there, just that he was there at all, and Astrid took a quick step back so she wasn't between their helmets when they headbutted one another.

 

"This is great!" Ruffnut yelled at her brother without even pulling back from him yet.

 

"We'll be able to set so much stuff on fire!" Tuffnut grinned wide and laughed.

 

"You two do realize you were perfectly capable of setting things on fire before now, right?" Astrid asked, and decided against reminding the Thorstons that they weren't supposed to set most things on fire anyway. Reminding them of that was Hiccup's job.

 

"Yeah, but before we'd always get blamed for it," Tuff shrugged and his sister nodded. "Now if we bring him with, he'll get all the blame!"

 

"And he might know more destructive things to do," Ruffnut chuckled.

 

"What are you talking about?" Fishlegs called out, he was more than used to worrying about the twins being this excited about anything.

 

"Dagur's staying!" Ruffnut yelled out to him. Fishlegs visibly paled and the twin laughed at his expression.

 

"Dragons attacked Johann's ship while he was leaving," Astrid explained, although it didn't seem to make the hefty boy any more relaxed.

 

"Odin demands that he stay on Berk!" Tuffnut yelled out as loud as he could. "And help us blow things up!"

 

"What? No--" Fishlegs fumbled to try to argue, but Ruff was already yelling over him.

 

"Yeah! We should initiate him!"

 

"Into what?" Astrid was beyond telling the twins they were stupid at this point. She was just trying to follow what dumb sense of logic they were using.

 

"The dragon training academy!"

 

"Dagur doesn't have a dragon," Fishlegs said. His voice was barely above a whimper when he said it.

 

"Sure he does, he has a Terrible Terror. That really mean one that bit Snotlout all the time," Ruff grinned.

 

"You can't ride a Terror," Fishlegs corrected, but once again he was overrun by one of the twins.

 

"Sure you can!" Tuff yelled, and he started moving like he was herding a lot of small and invisible somethings. "You just need to get a whole bunch of them, like this, and--"

 

"And I'm done," Astrid said as she rubbed between her eyes. "You have fun with that, I'm going to go flying with Stormfly."

 

"You can't just let them do this!" Fishlegs pleaded but Astrid was already walking away and toward her dragon. The big boy looked at the twins, both of them grinning evilly, and then he hurried after Astrid. "Wait! Do you want any company?"

 

\- - -

 

Dagur was finishing up scrubbing the last of the saltwater out of the clothes he had been dumped into the ocean with in a tub outside of his hut when Barf and Belch landed, nearly squishing the berserker under a huge, clawed foot. Dagur had jerked back and managed to avoid being stepped on, although the tub and the pants that had been in it hadn't been quite so lucky. The wood was crushed and the water spilled out, and his clothes ended up with one half under the Zippleback's front foot and the other half in the now muddy water.   
  
"Get down here so I can cut your fingers off!" Dagur barked up at the riders and Ruff and Tuff both laughed at that.

 

"You can do that later!" Ruff called down to him.

 

"Yeah, right now go get your dragon!" Tuff grinned wide.

 

"What, Trapjaw? Why?" Dagur frowned at them and the first thing he thought of was that they were going to try to feed the Terror to their Zippleback.

 

"You need a dragon to be in the dragon academy!" the twins yelled down at him together. Dagur paused and looked down at the wet cloth Barf's front foot was still on and shrugged. He braced his good hand on the green scales and hopped up to sit on the dragons' back where the spines from one neck met with the other.

 

"Works for me," Dagur said, and his whistled sharply to get Trapjaw's attention. The little dragon had been resting on the roof of the hut and looked down at him, then came over when Dagur clicked his tongue. The Terror took his sweet time but eventually he was on Dagur's lap and was clawing at the shirt Dagur had changed into. He was just dressed to clean his regular clothing and let his things dry out, so he was just in a plain and relatively thin tunic and trousers, he didn't even have his boots on, but he wasn't going to complain about being underdressed when someone was coming to save him from housework. Belch was still skittish around Dagur and needed Tuff's encouragement to get up into the sky, but the two-headed dragon was flying high soon enough and Dagur had to brace to keep from falling off of the dragon's back.

 

Dagur looked back down to the hut as it grew smaller and realized he probably should have told Hiccup he was leaving. The thought was quickly lost when Trapjaw dug all of his claws into Dagur's belly with a scream as Barf and Belch turned sharply.


	18. Chapter 18

"Alright, recruit," Tufnutt grinned broadly and marched across the academy floor. "First you need to, uh. Oh, right! You need your dragon to trust you, so touch it's nose."

 

"I'm not doing that," Dagur said firmly. Trapjaw had hopped off of him as soon as Dagur was off of the Zippleback and the Terror was now pawing at the lid to one of the barrels in the former arena.

 

"You have to," Ruffnut said and nodded at her own words. "'Cause we said so."

 

"You touch his nose," Dagur growled. Tuffnut went over to do just that and prodded the Terror's nose with a finger.

 

"See, you don't even need to use your whole hand, you can--argh!" The twin jumped back and flailed when Trapjaw bit down hard onto his whole hand, and Tuffnut started running backwards and trying to fling the little dragon off of him as he went. Dagur and Ruffnut both laughed at him and without the purple dragon guarding the barrel Dagur went to open it up.

 

"What're you doing?" Ruff was still giggling as she said it. She peered into the barrel when the berserker had opened it up and found a pile of smoked fish. Not quite up to food-grade for the vikings in the village, but dragons never seemed to mind their fish being a little off.

 

"Which one's the sparking head?" Dagur asked as he pulled out a fish and looked over to Barf and Belch.

 

"Hunh? Oh, he's Tuffnut's."

 

"...And does it have a name?"

 

"Duh. Hey Belch, come here!" Ruffnut yelled, and the Zippleback got up to come over to her, although with one side more hesitant than the other. Dagur held up the fish by the tail to the head that acted meeker towards him, and Belch responded by tucking under Barf's chin like the other half would somehow offer more protection. Barf wasn't nearly as shy and leaned in to take the fish and swallow it down. As soon as Belch realized there was food involved and that he wasn't getting any he let out a cranky sound and untucked from under the other head, headbutting Barf and scraping his teeth together to make a shower of sparks. Dagur had to yell to get the cranky head's attention after he pulled out another fish, and that time Belch took it from his hands and shook it some to show off that he had gotten a fish too before swallowing it.

 

"Hey, no fair, you don't get to have our dragon," Ruffnut scowled and reached up to pull Barf's head down and hold it protectively.

 

"I know it's pretty much the best dragon ever, but it's _ours_ ," Tuffnut chipped in as he came back with Trapjaw held firmly in his hands and as far away from the twin as could be managed. Dagur held his good hand out to the little dragon and the Terror wiggled and squirmed until he got away from Tuffnut, stalking up the berserker's good arm and settling down over his shoulders.

 

"I don't want your dragon, I just want it to stop looking like it's going to cry when it sees me," Dagur said. The fish had worked, and seeing Trapjaw comfortable around Dagur likely helped too, Belch was calmer around the older teen now. As ferocious as they could be dragons were also forgiving if the situation was right. ...And the fact Barf and Belch weren't the smartest dragons on Berk worked in Dagur's favor.

 

"You did try to cut his head off," Tuffnut pointed out.

 

"So? I did that to a lot of things."

 

"Can't argue with that logic," Ruffnut shrugged and climbed up over Barf's face to settle back in her saddle. "Flying lesson!"

 

Dagur paused, looked to Trapjaw, and then looked back up at her, "That's not happening."

 

"Sure it is, just take Belch!"

 

"Yeah!" Tuffnut grinned, then frowned immediately after. "Wait. No, don't take Belch! That head's mine!"

 

"You can ride on his butt," Ruffnut laughed.

 

"Unless you have a Skrill somewhere, I don't want to ride a dragon," Dagur said.

 

"Uh... the only Skrill we know about is the one you had before," Tuffnut said and hauled himself up onto Belch's neck to settle in so Dagur couldn't claim his dragon. "And that thing's like really frozen, it's in the middle of a glacier!"

 

"Then it looks like I'm not riding a dragon," Dagur said, and after a moment he grinned and reached up to rub under Barf's chin. "So how much gas do these make, anyway?"

 

Ruff and Tuff looked at each other and grinned wide.

 

\- - -

 

Hiccup scanned the ground below as Toothless flew over the forest. He wanted to be angrier about Dagur suddenly disappearing, but a crushed washbasin and a Hideous Zippleback footprint in the mud from it made it look like something Dagur couldn't control. It might've been a dragon holding a grudge after Dagur's dragon hunting phase, making sure to get rid of an old threat on a new home--a loud boom echoed out from the edge of the wilderness a little too close to the village and it shook Hiccup out of the thought.

 

"Or it could have been the twins," the dragon rider sighed and urged Toothless to go toward the explosion. Hopefully not too much would be destroyed. ...Actually, that was a little too much hope.

 

\- - -

 

"That was awesome!" Tuffnut yelled from where he'd ended up blown back into a bush. His sister was squirming and moving to get down off of the tree she had been blasted into and she called out down to the ground, "Let's do it again!"

 

Dagur had been a little more prepared and he had hidden from the explosion behind a large tree trunk. He laughed and looked around it to the small, charred crater that was the epicenter of the blast, Barf and Belch were nearby and looked just as amused as their riders at the sudden destruction. There hadn't been a clearing before, but there _had_ been a fallen over log with a small colony of Fireworms resting in it. Dagur hadn't even been sure it would work when he told Ruffnut she should get her dragon to spew out as much gas as it could near the log. Not on top of it, just close enough that the creeping gas would eventually find the tiny dragon's resting place.

 

"What in Thor's name just happened?" Hiccup landed at the edge of the blasted space, looking around at the new clearing, and to the cranky Fireworms that were scampering out of the bushes and down from the trees they had been blown into. None of them were injured, they were just all exceptionally upset at their nap being rudely interrupted.

 

"Dagur did it!" the twins yelled together and pointed toward the berserker.

 

"What? How could I have done it?" Dagur laughed and leaned on his tree trunk. He wasn't even pretending to be innocent, he was grinning too broadly to be anything but proud of the ruined area.

 

"And what, exactly, did you do?"

 

"Nothing at all," Dagur shrugged and laughed again. "But did you know that if you pour Zippleback gas on a pile of Fireworms they can ignite it without a spark?"

 

"Oh, gods, why," Hiccup grumbled and buried his face in his hands. "That's it, I'm going home. I'm done. You can walk back to your house."

 

"That's fine," Dagur looked back to the twins. "Can I get a ride?"

 

"Nope, changed my mind. Get on Toothless, you're not allowed near the twins anymore," Hiccup said and pulled his hands back from his face. It was starting to seem like Dagur did less damage as an enemy to Berk then when he was trying to be one of its residents. _There's no way this can end well..._


	19. Chapter 19

The next few days followed in a similar fashion, with Dagur getting picked up by the twins for 'Academy training' which was a Hiccup-friendly way of saying 'We're going to go blow things up now.' Once Snotlout had tried to challenge Dagur to a fight, and while Hiccup tried to stop it as much as he could the former berserker chief was eager for anything that wasn't farming or housework. What Snotlout probably assumed would be an easy win ended with him getting Dagur's boot to his face and waking up fifteen minutes after the berserker left. He hadn't tried to challenge Dagur again after that, although if asked Snotlout would loudly proclaim to anyone listening--or just anyone within earshot--that he had gone easy on Dagur since his arm was still healing.

 

The dragon riders had been mostly unbothered by the new addition. Astrid was slowly adjusting to the crazed young man. Fishlegs wasn't relaxed at all but he jumped less after a couple of days without any real damage done to him by Dagur, and he seemed amused that Snotlout ended up eating dirt after trying to fight with him. Snotlout didn't like Dagur, but Snotlout barely liked anyone. Unlike the riders Stoick was still bothered by the former enemy making himself at home on Berk, he was waiting as patiently as he could for the boy to leave, but it would still be at least four days away. In an effort to speed up the repairs to Johann's boat Stoick had entertained the thought of canceling Stump Day. It hadn't been an official announcement, it was just something he had been talking to Gobber about in his own home with Hiccup listening in and offering his opinions on.

 

"Ye can't do it, Stoick!" Gobber cried out, and Hiccup had to jump back when the blacksmith's hammer nearly took his head off. "If ye stop a tradition just because of one man it's like you're saying he has more influence than all of those the day is for!"

 

"I'm not saying anything of the kind, and you know it," Stoick sighed. "But I'm not comfortable with Dagur still being here when so many people will be celebrating."

 

"If it's that big of a problem, I can take him away for the day," Hiccup shrugged.

 

"Oh no ye can't," Gobber said sternly, and he pointed the rough stone hammer to Hiccup, "Your seat's already been made, or did ye forget about that?"

 

"My seat? But..." Hiccup trailed off and looked down at his boot and metal foot. He hadn't really thought of being at the center of the celebration this year, he was usually listening to the stories of how who lost what limb, or fetching something for someone the celebration was for. "I... But what about Toothless? If I'm stuck in Berk all day--"

 

"And there's a big slab of slate right next to your seat for him too," Gobber finished with a nod.

 

"What? Wait, really?" Hiccup turned to his father at that.

 

"Aye. Toothless might not have lost his tail in defense of Berk, but he's Berkian now, and he deserves all the same kindness as any other resident who's fought so hard and sacrificed so much," Stoick said, and as if he knew he was being talked about Toothless came up beside where the chief was sitting. Stock patted the Night Fury's back, and after getting his attention Toothless settled down next to Stoick and looked up at Hiccup with his pink tongue peeking out from his mouth.

 

"See? Even Toothless agrees, the day should go on," Gobber said and gestured to the dragon like that was the best argument of all.

 

"And what about you?" Stoick asked as he looked to Hiccup. It took the boy a moment to realize his father was talking to him.

 

"Wait, you're actually asking for my opinion for once? Willingly?" Hiccup said.

 

"I am. Stump Day is as much for you as any of our celebrated. Should it go on?"

 

"I think..." Hiccup started, and trailed off slowly. It was a weird question, because he hadn't really thought about himself as being celebrated. Ever. He used to entertain the thought of it, but now that it was actually there in front of him... "I think you should reschedule it. It can still happen, but I can wa--it can wait. Right?"

 

Stoick nodded and Gobber sighed, both of them men turning back to each other to talk about much less worrisome issues that arose during the day. Stoick wouldn't make the decision that night, but maybe if Hiccup was lucky for once in his life his dad would listen to him.

 

\- - -

 

Hiccup wasn't lucky. Ever. And the faster he realized that and accepted it the better off he'd be. Stoick had entertained the thought of rescheduling, but after quietly asking a few more people and realizing Gobber's opinion was the majority Stoick let the celebration continue as it always did. ...Sort of how it always did, at least. The dragons were a new touch. So was Hiccup, and he never realized how boring sitting around all day could be until he was doing it. He never wanted to get out of the great hall more than he did that day.

 

"Hey, bud?" Hiccup whispered as he leaned as far toward the dragon as he could in his chair. "Go get your saddle and tail and my leg, and we can go flying. Sounds good, right? Better than this?"

 

Hiccup was almost convinced Toothless was going to get up and help him up until someone walked by with a basket of fish. As soon as Toothless caught the scent he turned to make a wanting sound at the man and opened his mouth wide, and as soon as the dragon did it the fish was being poured into his over-eager mouth and he was swallowing them down whole. The Night Fury resettled and rolled onto his side, his belly fatter than ever, and with a happy purr he closed his eyes.

 

"You're so _fat_ and _useless_ ," Hiccup grumbled and flopped over in his chair. Toothless wasn't going to be of any help, he was like everyone else, enjoying the one day a year where everyone was going to treat him special.

 

"What is going on?"

 

Hiccup looked up and craned his neck to look behind his chair at Dagur, and the twins who were probably the ones that brought him.

 

"It's Stump Day!" Ruffnut grinned wide.

 

"Yeah! If you lose a limb everyone takes care of you all day," Tuffnut said and raised his left hand up high, "If I ever lost my hand I'd get a _sword_ put there instead! Swordhand!"

 

"You're thinking too small!" Ruffnut scolded. "You have two hands, don't you?"

 

"You're _right_ ," Tuffnut gasped and raised his right hand up too. "Double swordhands!"

 

"You want any help with that?" Dagur laughed and yanked a knife out of Ruffnut's belt.

 

"Yeah!" Tuffnut put his hands down on the back of Hiccup's chair to brace them, and Hiccup didn't trust either the twins or Dagur not to take the joke too far.

 

"Nobody's cutting anyone's hands off!" Hiccup yelled as he twisted around and shoved Tuff's hands off of his chair. "Why don't you go get me something to eat? Like bread and butter."

 

The twins looked to each other and huffed, but they both stalked off to fetch Hiccup what he asked for.

 

"They actually listened to you?" Dagur said as he watched them, he stuck the knife into his belt and leaned on the back of Hiccup's chair where Tuff had been willing to get his hands chopped off for swords.

 

"They have to," Hiccup sighed, slouching back in his chair.

 

"Why?"

 

"It's Stump Day, the day where everyone able-bodied shows their love and appreciation for those who sacrificed for Berk without reaching Valhalla yet," Hiccup raised his leg and gestured to the stump there. "And since I lost my leg, that's me. And Toothless, people have been feeding him all day."

 

Dagur leaned on the back of Hiccup's chair a little more as he looked down at him, "Can I see it?"

 

"You mean this?" Hiccup frowned a little and folded his leg so he could push up the bottom of his pants, showing where his leg ended abruptly in scars. "Yeah, but why?"

 

"I don't know. I just haven't seen the wound yet, I guess," Dagur said as he moved off of the back of Hiccup's chair and came around to touch the scarred skin lightly. The touch felt weirdly... hesitant. Which wasn't like Dagur at all, but Hiccup didn't mind the light touch. It was better than him being too rough. "Where's your prosthetic?"

 

"Back home," Hiccup sighed. He thought about shooing Dagur's hand off of him when the bigger boy kept touching along the uneven skin, but it was actually sort of... nice.

 

"So how'd you get here?"

 

"I rode on Toothless' back. My dad offered to carry me, but..." Hiccup grumbled and made a face. He was generally only carried by dad growing up when Stoick wanted him to be away from somewhere or something. Hiccup glared at Toothless who had gone to sleep and was snoring contentedly on his slab of rock. "And now Toothless won't get up so I can't ride him out of here."

 

"How about me?" Dagur said as he took his hand off of Hiccup's leg. "I'll carry you."

 

"I don't..." Hiccup started and he glanced back around the great hall. Well, it was supposed to be a day for him, right? And he wasn't having fun stuck where he was. "Yeah, sounds good. Kneel down and I'll get on your back."

 

Dagur knelt down like Hiccup told him, and Hiccup reached up to take Dagur's spiked helmet off so he could carry it without worrying about getting a long piece of metal in his face. Hiccup had already pretty much settled on the other boy's broad back when he frowned and thought of something, "You can handle me with just one good arm, right?"

 

"We'll find out," Dagur laughed as he stood up, and Hiccup yelped and held onto him a little tighter as he wrapped his legs around Dagur's waist. The berserker gripped the dragon rider's boot in his hand, probably harder than he had to, and he leaned forward some so more of Hiccup's weight was on his back instead of his hips. It wasn't going to be a great ride, but it meant Hiccup would be able to get some fresh air and some sun for a little while.


	20. Chapter 20

"Ok, here," Dagur said as he knelt down awkwardly and eased Hiccup off of his back and onto the grass.

 

"What's so special about here?" Hiccup asked as he looked over to where the ground dropped off in a steep cliff over the sea a good ten feet away.

 

"It's about four feet away from where I'd drop you," Dagur said as he sat down next to Hiccup. "You're heavier than you look."

 

"Thanks," Hiccup said and he laid back to sprawl out on the ground. "Well, I'm glad to be out in the sun, at least."

 

"What, that's all I get for hauling you out here?"

 

"I said thanks," Hiccup huffed, and in place of his response Dagur promptly flopped back onto Hiccup and knocked the wind out of him. Hiccup wiggled and shoved at Dagur's shoulder, but there wasn't much to do with the bigger boy's back on his belly and pinning him down.

 

"Come on, get off! You're heavy and your studs are digging into me," Hiccup shoved at Dagur again and got the older teen up some, but he couldn't keep up the constant push and Dagur just ended up on top of him again with a laugh.

 

"What are you two _doing_?"

 

Dagur and Hiccup both looked over to the voice, and Hiccup tried harder to shove Dagur off of him when he saw Snotlout sitting on Hookfang. The only problem was Dagur seemed to be completely content to stay where he was. If anything Dagur was _more_ determined to stay exactly where he was, "Hiccup wanted fresh air and he hasn't thanked me properly yet."

 

"I don't have to thank you, you're supposed to do what I want today!" Hiccup shoved at Dagur again, and he actually got the other boy up and off of him that time--at least it seemed like it until it was obvious Dagur was looking at something in the sea. Hiccup sat up with him and looked out to the water, "What is it?"

 

"Looks like a boat," Dagur said as he squinted to try to see it better, then looked back to Snotlout. "Go fly out and see who it is."

 

"I don't have to listen to you!" Snotlout spat at Dagur.

 

"First, Snotlout's right," Hiccup said and shoved Dagur's arm, then he looked to Snotlout, "Second, that's not a bad idea. It's just one boat and we know it's not Johann since he's still on Berk."

 

"What if it's just another trader?" Snotlout grumbled.

 

"Then they're trespassing in Berk waters, Johann is the only free trader allowed here," Dagur said. "So get going."

 

"What?" Snotlout frowned. "That's not true."

 

"Yeah it is," Hiccup sighed and pointed to the ship far off on the water. "Just go."

 

"There is no way I'm--" Snotlout was cut off when Hookfang obeyed Hiccup faster than his rider did. The Nightmare flared his wings and ran to the edge of the cliff to jump off of it and start toward the boat, no matter how much Snotlout yelled at him to turn around and go back.

 

"Maybe he'll listen someday," Hiccup grumbled to himself, and he looked over to Dagur when the older boy laid down next to him on the grass instead of on top of him. "How'd you know about Johann?"

 

"I still remember getting dragged to the boring parts of the yearly meetings with my father," Dagur shrugged. "Johann is the only trader that refuses to buy or sell slaves, not just on Berk but everywhere, so he's the only one your father allows to come to the island."

 

"You remember more than I do," Hiccup said. "All I remember is getting knives thrown at me by a psychopath."

 

Dagur grinned and laughed at that.

 

"You could at least pretend to be sorry about that," Hiccup grumbled.

 

"I'm not throwing knives at you now," Dagur said with a sharp grin.

 

"I'd hope not considering everything else you want to do to me now," Hiccup said, and he pulled back a little when Dagur pushed himself up to move over Hiccup. "Ah--wait, we're not that far from the village, someone could--"

 

"We're fine," Dagur grinned. Hiccup didn't believe him, but he didn't try to get away from him.

 

"You know I'm worried about your own good, right? If my dad knew..." Hiccup trailed off, not really sure what to add to it. Stoick would be angry, of course, he was already trying to get rid of Dagur to protect Hiccup from him. But Stoick wasn't an idiot, and if he knew Dagur wanted pretty much the exact opposite of being Hiccup's enemy he might possibly allow Dagur to stick around until he became a real danger to someone. Having an overenthusiastic and violent guy trying to chase someone around and impress them into dating him wasn't that weird--Astrid had to deal with pretty much the exact same thing and it wasn't like they shipped Snotlout out to sea for it. But Dagur wasn't Snotlout and Hiccup wasn't Astrid, mostly because Astrid hated the attention she got and Hiccup was still trying to figure out if he liked it or not. It had gotten to the point where Hiccup was sure he did like it, at least a little bit, and that just made it more confusing. It was _Dagur_ , after all.

 

"I'm going to be fine," Dagur grinned like he had the answers to everything already and Hiccup rolled his eyes. "We just need--"

 

"Yeah, I know. You want to make it look like the gods want you to stay," Hiccup sighed. "At this point I'm starting to wish Thor really _would_ show some sign that he wants you to stay or not."

 

"It's going to be great. You know my Scaldron trick before? One of the twins told me about one they saved--"

 

"That would be Scaldy, and you don't get to use him. We don't even know where he is most of the time," Hiccup said.

 

"Fine, the other one said they could control a huge dragon with immense firepower, and I was thinking--"

 

"That's Torch, and if any of your plans involve burning or breaking Johann's boat again you don't get to use them," Hiccup said firmly. Dagur frowned down at him and growled as he pulled back. Hiccup reached up to grab Dagur's shoulder and tug him back down on impulse, and when the bigger boy was looking down at him and confused the dragon rider panicked. He didn't know why he had pulled Dagur back in, but he didn't have to make up an excuse since Dagur leaned in and kissed Hiccup. It wasn't as deep and didn't have as many teeth as Dagur tended to use when he was excited, and when the former berserker pulled back Hiccup almost missed the hard and almost too-sharp feeling he got when Dagur would bite his lip and tongue.

 

"Breaking the boat is easiest," Dagur said as he sat next to Hiccup and watched the far-off ship with Hookfang circling over it.

 

"Easy isn't any fun," Hiccup answered. "We'll think of something."

 

Dagur grinned sharply down at him and Hiccup answered it with a smile of his own. When Dagur leaned in to kiss him again Hiccup got to feel the rough edge of teeth he had been missing before.


	21. Chapter 21

It took longer than it should have for Hookfang to get back to Hiccup and Dagur. Most of the diving at the ship and bluffing at its crew the Nightmare had done went unnoticed by the rider and warrior still on Berk, but when Dagur finally pulled back from Hiccup because it had been long enough for Hookfang to fly over and come back the dragon was still hovering as well as he could near the ship.

 

"Is he usually this slow?" Dagur looked over to Hiccup as he sat up.

 

"No, but he might be trying to show off. Or break something," Hiccup sighed and looked around. No luck, there'd be barely anyone around on this side of the village outskirts, and with Stump Day going on there was even less of a reason to wander too far from the great hall.

 

"What is he doing?" Dagur frowned when Hookfang suddenly dove down and landed on the ship, he was there for just a short time before taking flight and heading straight for Berk.

 

"Snotlout probably jumped off and Hookfang just picked him up," Hiccup shrugged. "They should be back soon enough."

 

"Might be sooner than you think," Dagur frowned a little as he watched the great red lizard. "He's going fast."

 

Dagur was right, for whatever reason Hookfang was flying fast now that he was coming back. It could have been nothing, like the dragon just decided he was hungry and he needed to get back home so he could eat his weight in fish, or it could have been Snotlout urging his dragon on. There wasn't much to do until Snotlout actually came back, if there was a problem it wouldn't do any good to worry and panic before actually knowing what it was. Not that waiting was actually a problem, Hookfang wasn't just going fast, he was going as fast as he was able to, and it was barely more than a few minutes before the Nightmare was slowing down to land nearby. Snotlout was grinning broadly and obviously too pleased with himself, and he turned to speak back to the passenger he had picked up on the ship, "See? Told you he's gotten faster. Although, let's be honest, you didn't really _need_ an excuse to hold onto me the whole time."

 

Hiccup frowned at that and leaned forward, trying to see around Snotlout to who he had picked up, and he just stared when she finally pulled away from the brutish boy and climbed down off of Hookfang's saddle. It was a familiar face and pretty much the last one he expected to see.

 

"Heather?" Hiccup asked, confused and looking back to Snotlout like he might offer some explanation.

 

"I found her on the _berserker_ ship out there," Snotlout bragged, puffing his chest out some and still grinning like he had just saved the day. "Obviously she was a prisoner, and--"

 

"You're an idiot," Dagur cut in and he pushed himself up from where he was sitting to kneel instead. Hiccup took the unspoken offer to get back up onto Dagur's back the way he had been carried before.

 

"I wasn't a prisoner," Heather said and she looked to Hiccup with a smile once he was on Dagur's back. "But it is good to see you all again."

 

"If you weren't a prisoner then what were you doing on the ship?" Snotlout said loudly, and he sounded as though he took the fact she disagreed with him as a personal insult.

 

"I was coming to Berk," Heather said over her shoulder to him as she came over to help Hiccup get settled. "Bola and Nott are on the ship, too."

 

"Of course they are," Dagur grumbled as he finally got his bandaged arm settled against the crook of Hiccup's leg and held onto the smaller boy's boot with his good hand.

 

"You should have gotten a letter," Heather said as she pulled back a little once the two boys were situated. She might not have known why Hiccup didn't have his prosthetic, but it wasn't hard to figure out that he'd need some help getting around without it.

 

"Yeah, we did," Hiccup sighed and held around Dagur's shoulders and chest, the bigger boy's helmet in his hand. "I thought Nott would wait until getting a reply to actually show up here, though. ...Wait, how did you know about the letter?"

 

Heather smiled again and laughed softly as she started towards the village, "If nobody knows she's coming it might be a good idea to tell your father. Right?"

 

\- - -

 

Stoick didn't take very well to the news that Dagur's sisters were coming towards Berk unannounced. He also didn't like finding out so late that Dagur had already helped Hiccup figure out the letter the chief had mostly assumed to be worthless, and that it was Nott's poor attempt at announcing her visit. There was little they could do beyond preparing for the impromptu visit, turning the berserkers away at dock would be in poor taste and that would be too much pressure to put on the new and fragile treaty, and sending a dragon rider out to shoo them off before docking would be even worse. The greeting party was a good size, really. Stoick--who would have been there even if it wasn't his obligation--and farther away from him were Dagur who had been requested, Heather, and Snotlout who had followed her, and Hiccup on Toothless. Stoick had tried to refuse to let his son come, but anything short of locking Hiccup in a room wasn't going to keep the boy somewhere he didn't want to be.

 

"You still never said why you were on the ship," Hiccup looked to Heather where she was sitting on the dock and dangling her legs over the side. She glanced back to him, part of her face hidden by the large black braid, and gave him another smile.

 

"Clearly its fate," Snotlout said loudly. Heather looked back to the ocean at that, she hadn't been planning to say anything but taking the opportunity to keep quiet a little longer without having to explain herself wouldn't hurt anything. Snotlout continued, gesturing grandly as he spoke, although even Hookfang didn't try to feign interest in his rider, "You've been sent to me, the greatest warrior on Berk, and to prove it I had to rescue you from the murderous--"

 

"If he keeps talking I'm going to break something," Dagur growled to nobody in particular.

 

"And if _you_ keep interrupting me I'm going to break your _face_ ," Snotlout spat. Dagur laughed at that, and weirdly enough Heather did too. Hiccup looked at them, and he didn't know what but there was something definitely there.

 

"Why's Bola coming anyway?" Dagur turned to glance at Heather. He spoke a little too calmly and casually, usually around strangers Dagur was too... deranged.

 

"She just wanted to make sure Nott would be safe, I think. She left Pike in charge in her absence," Heather responded in the same too-calm and too-familiar way.

 

"Of _course_ she did."

 

"I don't know why you hate him so much. Pike is nice," Heather smiled to him and laughed softly.

 

"Heather... what island did you live on, again?" Hiccup asked carefully. Heather and Dagur both looked back to him, both grinning and both with the same amused, emerald eyes.

 

"Do you know how Berserkers name their children?" Heather asked as she tucked her legs up and away from the water and scooted from the edge of the dock as the ship came closer.

 

"Yes." The kids looked over to Stoick when he spoke. They hadn't been far enough away from him not to be heard apparently. The chief kept his position, arms crossed and watching the looming ship. "They name their children after common things so enemies won't realize when they're talking about them: the day, the night, a weapon, or even something like a flower. If I had known who you were when Hiccup first brought you home..."

 

"That's why I'm here now," Heather said calmly, although she had lost the amused tone in her voice. She was willing to tease Hiccup, she wasn't willing to do the same to Stoick. "Bola thought it would be best to let you meet one of her spies as a show of good faith. To be completely fair, I was never sent to Berk specifically, I was supposed to observe the Outcasts."

 

"You were the one who told Dagur we had dragons," Hiccup said as he stared at Heather. He felt betrayed, worse than the first time they had thought Heather was an enemy. "But, your parents?"

 

"They weren't my parents," Heather admitted. "They were doing the same as I was, although if you hadn't rescued them they might not have come back home alive. Berserker or not they were vastly outnumbered. I can still thank you for that."

 

"Then where are your parents?"

 

Heather looked to Hiccup with a small, worried frown before she glanced to Dagur. Dagur looked back at her for a moment, then turned to Hiccup and gestured to her with his good hand.

 

"Hiccup, meet my youngest sister."


	22. Chapter 22

It was weird seeing Dagur with his sisters in a group. Bola still glared at him and barked orders at him more than she spoke, and Dagur replied just as badly, either sneering at her or laughing or making fun of her. Nott didn't seem aware of their aggression, but she didn't seem aware of much at all, and Heather... Hiccup was still reeling over that. She looked like she didn't fit in with the rest of them, she was thinner, shorter, and honestly prettier than all three. Although there was a faintly royal bearing in her that was explained by her being the daughter of a chief--and then the sister to the ones that came after him. Dagur, Bola and Nott all seemed to be too rough in some way or another, and even with one injured and the other inebriated those three all seemed to have some underlying aggression or disturbance that made it uneasy to be around them for too long when considered an enemy. Heather was different... up until a while ago. Now there was an awkward and unsure feeling when Hiccup looked at her, not because he was worried about her physically harming him but because he wasn't sure if he'd be able to tell if she started lying to him again.

 

"Are you really that upset?" Heather asked as she looked to Hiccup. They were following Nott and Dagur for lack of anything better to do. After they came onto Berk Stoick told Bola he had never received any official notice of their visit and--after Bola tried to yell at Nott who seemed to be falling asleep against her staff instead of showing any worry or concern--Bola had made arrangements for her sisters and herself. She was aggressive and loud, but slightly better at being diplomatic than Dagur. _Slightly_.

 

"Am I still upset? Let's see, you lied to all of us. Twice. In a row. And sent your insane brother at us after telling him we had dragons. I'm not sure, _am_ I upset?" Hiccup grumbled.

 

"You seem to be managing Dagur pretty well from what I can see," Heather smiled a little as she tried to lighten the mood. It just made Hiccup huff more.

 

"Yeah, that's really not the point at all," he glared at her, and then deflated when she seemed genuinely upset by the remark. "And it's not just me. You lied to everyone. Even Astrid."

 

"It was my mission," Heather said softly. "Astrid is a warrior, she'll understand that."

 

"Just because she's going to understand it doesn't mean she's not going to be angry about it," Hiccup sighed. "We might not ever be able to trust you again."

 

"You managed to forgive my brother," Heather smiled again and looked ahead to her siblings. "I think you'll manage to do the same for me."

 

\- - -

 

Hiccup had been entertaining the idea of just not telling anyone about Heather. It wouldn't have been that hard, the arrangements on such short notice were that Dagur's sisters were to spend their time in Dagur's home. Bola and Dagur both had very loud and angry opinions about that, but it was the only place really open and available to them and Nott and Heather didn't mind it. Heather would be helping Nott do whatever it was she wanted to on Berk, or visiting with Dagur since she seemed to be the sister he liked best, and both of those or anything else along those lines would keep her away from the village proper. But it didn't matter much what Heather was going to do since as soon as Snotlout was free to he had gone to the other academy students and told them who was visiting and why. He hadn't told them about Heather's relation to Dagur, or to the Berserker tribe, but that was because he was gloating about the one bit of information that he knew and the rest of the group didn't. To Hiccup's annoyance Snotlout just kept alluding to Heather's 'big secret' and annoying everyone with it.

 

"I've had just about all I can stand of him today," Astrid grumbled as she leaned against Hiccup's chair. He had ended up in it again, although more because Toothless wanted to get back to his warm slab of rock and endless fish dinner, and even now when Hiccup whined for a crutch he was told to relax and enjoy himself instead.

 

"Yeah," Hiccup sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "Listen... it might be easier if I tell you what's going on with Heather, so..."

 

"You know what it is? And you've been letting Snotlout act like _that_ since she got here?" Astrid frowned down at him. She paused and pulled back as she pulled up the satchel she had been wearing. "Oh, wait, I just remembered. I got you something."

 

"You got me something?" Hiccup peered into Astrid's satchel as she pulled out a book and offered it to him. He took it and opened it carefully, not sure what it would actually be about, and frowned when he looked down at the writing. "I, uh... This is nice, but I can't read this."

 

"Neither can I," Astrid reached over and flipped a few pages in the book until the bulk of the unknown words and writing gave way to large sketches of beasts. It was almost like the Book of Dragons, but the small notes in the margins and to the sides of the illustrations Hiccup couldn't understand, and the images weren't like any dragons he had ever seen before. Some didn't even seem to be dragons. They were something else, closer to birds than to lizards, but with four legs and huge wings and long tails the way some dragons were built. There was colored ink on the pages, and it showed a much more limited spectrum for the animals than dragons could have, and oddly enough they seemed to be paired together in a way that put a smaller and more brightly colored animal with a large and more fearsome but usually drab partner.

 

"These are amazing," Hiccup said as he paused in scouring the book for more drawings to look up at Astrid. He had stopped on a page that showed a nest with eggs, and a series of sketches that showed the little hatchlings from the species breaking open their egg and how they looked after. They were... really gross and freaky looking, honestly. "But what are they?"

 

"I have no idea," Astrid grinned at him. "But I figured if you want to find out about all dragons everywhere something like this might be a good start."

 

"I don't even know if these are dragons," Hiccup said as he turned the page. The sketches before that showed the wet and weird-looking hatchlings continued on the next page, and illustrated how the naked little thing would fluff up when dry and look cuter and more like it belonged with its parents. "See? They have fur or feathers or something. Or both."

 

"Maybe some dragons have fur," Astrid offered. "So what was it you were going to tell me about Heather?"

 

"Oh... right," Hiccup winced as he closed his new book carefully, "Alright, just first promise me you're not going to get mad?"


	23. Chapter 23

Astrid was predictably furious when Hiccup told her about Heather and her relation to Dagur. She could figure out fast enough what it meant, that Heather had fooled them more than once, and after seeming to befriend the teenagers on Berk she turned around and told Dagur information he should have never gotten. After Dagur had worked together with Alvin--badly--everyone had assumed the Outcast was the one who informed the Berserker tribe about Berk's dragons. It had mostly gone forgotten since then, and likely would have been forgotten forever if the new revelation hadn't brought it back to life.

 

"You said you wouldn't be mad!" Hiccup yelled after Astrid. He had managed to keep her still long enough to say most of what he wanted to stay, but once she started storming off there wasn't much he could do to get her back.

 

"I lied!" Astrid turned to yell back at Hiccup, and she didn't see the figure that started into the great hall until she walked right into it. Astrid jerked back and stumbled a little, and she glared at who had gotten in her way. She nearly snarled when she saw it was Bola, "Where's Heather?!"

 

Bola looked over her slowly, eyes narrowed, and then glanced around the room quickly before speaking, "You're Astrid?"

 

"Yeah," Astrid frowned and took a half step back, not sure if she should be getting ready to block some sort of attack from the Berserker chief.

 

"Good," Bola stepped aside and jerked her head towards the doorway. "Come with me, we're going to talk."

 

Astrid paused at that and she looked back toward Hiccup. Hiccup didn't have any idea what was going on, he couldn't even really hear the two of them very well. The room had gone mostly quiet when Astrid yelled, but now that there didn't seem to be any actual confrontation between the two warriors everyone was going back to their conversations. Even with Hiccup trying to wave and get Astrid to come back to him she just looked back to Bola and nodded before going out the door, the chief following behind her.

 

\- - -

 

Bola wasn't going anywhere in particular as she walked, she was just heading out of the main area of the village and Astrid called over Stormfly as they passed the Nadder's little hut beside Astrid's home. Stormfly was eager to come with, even more when that meant she had someone new to meet and she bumped her beak-like nose against Bola's back. The berserker stumbled and turned with a growl, and quickly put a little more distance between the dragon and herself.

 

"She's not going to attack unless I tell her to," Astrid smiled a little, even if she hated the situation it was nice when she felt like she was in control of it at least a little, and she reached up to rub under her dragon's chin.

 

"Right," Bola was still uneasy and she backed off a little more as Stormfly came in to peer at her with a friendly squawk. "Dagur told me that he wants to stay, but that he's being made to leave the island."

 

"Did he tell you why?" Astrid asked as she patted Stormfly's side to get her to back off. As funny as it was to see someone freaking out about one of the most well-mannered and well-trained dragons on the island Astrid didn't want Bola to snap and hurt her friend.

 

"I don't care why," Bola answered, and she seemed to relax some without the dragon staring at her. "But if he's not going to try to come home then I'm willing to look the other way while everything is settled. Heather's decided to help him and she said you'd be the best person to bring in."

 

Astrid glared at Bola at that, her voice sharp when she spoke, "And why would I want to help Heather? Or Dagur? She lied to me, she lied to all of us, and she sent your brother after us!"

 

"Dagur didn't believe her after he came home without proof of Berk taming dragons," Bola stooped down and pulled a dagger out from a sheath hidden in the inside of her boot. She stood and flipped it around, holding the base of the blade as she offered the handle to Astrid. "But if you hate my sister that much take your revenge and finish it."

 

Astrid looked down at the dagger and frowned. It wasn't long, but it was sharp and there was a wicked crook at the end of the blade that made it resemble a fishhook. It wasn't a weapon meant for quick, clean cuts.

 

"I'm not going to hurt your sister," Astrid finally said and she pushed the dagger away. "At least not like that."

 

"Good," Bola stooped down to put the knife back and glanced to the side. "That was all you wanted?"

 

"Yep."

 

Astrid frowned at the voice and looked around Stormfly toward it, and there sitting on a barrel, half hidden behind a plank leaning on the side of a hut and the shadow it cast, was Heather. Astrid felt her face get hot, flushed with anger and embarrassment at what she had just been made to walk into.

 

"Just so you know," Bola said as she straightened up and turned to begin walking away, "This was her idea. I don't care about Dagur, and I wouldn't have let you have the knife anyway."

 

\- - -

 

It was suppertime by the time Hiccup saw either Dagur or Astrid or Heather again. He had been an odd sort of anxious and relieved the whole time, expecting the worst but knowing if it happened he would hear about it fairly quickly. Hiccup was already poking at his plate of food when Astrid joined him and sat across from Hiccup at the table.

 

"Wow, that took a while," he said as he looked up at her. She didn't seem happy, but she wasn't as upset as when she had left. "Couldn't find her?"

 

"Oh, I found her," Astrid sighed and reached over to steal Hiccup's slice of bread. He didn't mind, he probably wasn't going to finish most of what was on his plate.

 

"And how did that go?"

 

"Bad. And good? I don't know, but apparently she's going to help you and Dagur," Astrid grumbled as she took a bite of the bread, looking over and then talking with her mouth still full, "You can ask her about it yourself in a moment."

 

Hiccup looked up as Heather sat down beside Astrid, looking for all the world like she was sitting happily with her friends as she set down her plate of food, and then reached over to put a second plate beside Hiccup. Hiccup almost asked why she did that, but with a heavy thud and a low groan Dagur was beside him. He looked bad, not completely terrible, but if Hiccup hadn't seen him earlier and knew he was fine then he would have thought Dagur hadn't slept well the night before, or ate something that disagreed with him that morning.

 

"What happened to you?" Hiccup asked as he reached up to touch Dagur's forehead under his helm. He was too warm, and Hiccup knew what had happened before he said it.

 

"Nott wanted me to try some things..." Dagur mumbled and he looked down to his plate of food. He grimaced and pushed it away, and Heather reached over to push it right back.

 

"If you don't eat you're just going to keep feeling worse," she said. Her tone wasn't quite scolding but Dagur still glared at her like she had yelled at him.

 

"I feel like I'm going to throw up," Dagur growled.

 

Heather looked to Hiccup instead and shrugged with a small sigh, "Nott decided it would be better to test out new things on Dagur instead of someone back home. She needs to harvest them on Berk anyway, so it's not an extra trip out, and while he isn't technically one of ours anymore he has been exposed to her medicines in the past."

 

"You just got everything from before out of you," Hiccup frowned. It was a bad idea to leave Dagur with his family if they were just going to start feeding him poison again.

 

"I'm fine," Dagur said and he grinned at Hiccup crookedly. "I actually feel better, kind of. My arm does..."

 

Hiccup was about to say something when he felt little claws on the back of his vest. He pulled back from Dagur to look down at it, and the opening gave Trapjaw enough space to wiggle up between them, then he crammed in against Dagur between him and the table. The unpleasant Terror was purring loudly and wiggling around to get settled in the tiny space, and it wasn't until Dagur scooted back that Trapjaw finally curled up on his lap.

 

"That's weird. I thought his version of nice was biting slightly less hard than usual," Hiccup said as he watched the little dragon.

 

"He's been acting weird since..." Dagur frowned as he tried to think and he closed his eyes with a growl. He was having trouble thinking, and it was getting to him now that he was trying to talk.

 

"Since Nott gave him his second cup," Heather finished for him. "She was giving him different doses and seeing the affects, and apparently one of them makes dragons decide they really like you. ...And he kind of stinks."

 

"I was wondering what that smell was," Astrid said.

 

"Astrid said you're going to help," Hiccup said a little quieter than before. Snotlout would probably be over at some point to try to show off to Astrid and Heather at the same time, so it would be better to get anything that shouldn't be repeated out of the way quickly.

 

"I want my brother happy," Heather smiled sweetly, and Astrid punched her shoulder. After grumbling and rubbing over the bruised spot Heather sighed, "And I thought it would be useful to have someone I could stay with on another island with a stable home if I ever need to leave Berserk for a bit."

 

"You can sleep on the floor," Dagur said with a laugh.

 

"You're a terrible host," Heather said. "Anyway, from what Dagur said before his brain got muddled you only have a couple of days left. Is there anything you have planned?"

 

Hiccup winced at that and reached up to rub the back of his neck. He hadn't been putting much thought into how to keep Dagur around. He wanted the older boy to stay, but everything he thought of was stupid or too difficult to manage, and dealing with trying to figure out how he felt and why was making it even harder to figure out a good plan. Aside from something falling from the sky and solving their problems there wasn't much he could think of.

 

"You see, I--"Hiccup started, but he was cut off sharply when there was a sudden, loud scream. Everyone in the great hall turned to stare as Bucket clutched at his bucket and fell off of his bench to the ground.


	24. Chapter 24

It took nearly an hour for Mulch to calm Bucket down and round up a few people to help get him home, and then a few more hours before everyone started getting ready for the storm. There were the usual naysayers--Stoick included--who were convinced even after this long of Bucket being able to predict the weather that he was just yelling for no reason, or that he was wrong, and went to Gothi for clarification. The sky didn't look terrible, but that really didn't mean much as to how severe the weather would turn out to be later. Hiccup's job was to herd the other dragon riders out from wherever they were and send them off on a list of errands he got from his father. Most of it was just precautionary and none of it to difficult, get the farm animals moved and settled now before the weather got worse, same with the dragons, start distributing wood so people could board up their homes, things like that.

 

"This is great," Dagur grinned as he swayed. He was able to walk fine, but for some reason when he stood still he couldn't actually keep _still_. Hiccup wasn't sure if his balance was shot or if he was just antsy after Nott's drugs and was just shifting his weight from foot to foot the whole time.

 

"How is this great? And get up here, I don't trust you on your own like this," Hiccup said as he scooted forward on Toothless' saddle some to make room for Dagur. Thankfully at the threat of a storm he was able to get his foot back, same as everyone else after Bucket's flailing. Most of the vikings were much less enthused at being required to do their duties once more instead of being able to relax, but bad storms weren't something anyone could ignore. Especially not when Bucket had apparently been hurting for days and only screamed when he couldn't stand the constant pain anymore.

 

"Thor sent a storm," Dagur grinned and got up onto the saddle clumsily behind Hiccup. How Dagur smelled had helped relax Toothless around him too, the Night Fury usually winced and tried to keep Dagur from getting onto his back, but this time he hadn't made any fuss by Dagur clambering on after Hiccup.

 

"It _always_ storms on Berk, that's not going to convince anyone that you should stay," Hiccup urged Toothless up and into the sky. It took too long for Dagur to get his arm around Hiccup's middle securely, but he managed it and leaned on the smaller boy's back. In return Hiccup grunted and squirmed, close to being squished under him. "And if my dad reads anything out of this it's that Thor's angry you didn't get off Berk sooner!"

 

Dagur said something, but it was lost in the wind as Toothless flew.

 

\- - -

 

It took longer than Hiccup would have liked to find the other riders and send them off and the sun was setting when he returned. Astrid had been first to get her job, to take Heather and find Bola. The chief needed to know what was coming, especially if there was the chance the storm would carry itself toward Berserk. Heather would know the likely places her sister would be if she wasn't at Dagur's hut, and Astrid would know what places in the wilderness were best for hunting assuming Bola liked to kill things as much as Dagur did. When Hiccup finally landed Toothless back in the village to receive any new orders from his father it was only a few minutes after that Stormfly returned as well. The Nadder crouched down to let her rider down, but Astrid's passenger jumped off first. It wasn't Heather anymore, instead Bola had taken her place, and she looked overly anxious either from the flight on a dragon or the news, or both.

 

"How far away is it?" Bola called out as soon as she was within sight of Hiccup. Hiccup froze, he wasn't sure how to answer her, but when he opened his mouth another voice cut through.

 

"Three days if we're lucky," Stoick's voice was loud and commanding, and in the fading light it was actually comforting. It was also comforting to have Bola's attention focused solely on the other chief, and Hiccup closed his mouth before he brought attention to himself or Dagur.

 

"And if we're not lucky?" Bola snapped. Given the situation Stoick was slightly more lenient with the young chief and didn't reprimand her for her impatience with anything more than a stern glare.

 

"At worst, less than two," he said. Bola visibly bristled at the news and looked around, her fingers curled like she was trying to grab or choke something that wasn't there.

 

"I won't be able to get back," the Berserker chief sounded an odd mix of scared and enraged, the way a dragon in a trap might sound like if one could speak. It was unsettling.

 

"You shouldn't have left Pike in charge," Dagur laughed from behind Hiccup, he sounded better than he had before but there was still a slight slur to his words. And the fact he was stupid enough to mock and laugh at his sister when she looked that dangerous made Hiccup wince. Bola turned on them with a snarl and grabbed the crooked dagger out from her boot. If he had been at his usual form Dagur wouldn't have had a problem, but he was still off from Nott's drugs, and his tunic was in Bola's fist before he had the chance to pull back and away from her.

 

"That's it! No more out of you," Bola snarled at her brother and raised the knife up. Toothless screamed at her and pulled back at the sudden appearance of the knife, but with Bola's grip and Dagur's unsteadiness that just meant that the dragon had gotten out from under the boy and left him in the berserker chief's grasp. "If I hear one more thing--"

 

"Take a dragon," Dagur said it far too calmly for the situation, and somehow he was still grinning. The words made Bola pause and she looked over him, frozen in her fratricidal rage, anger etched into every line on her face from her still snarl.

 

"Take. A. Dragon," Dagur repeated, and he slowly got his feet under him to stand up. Bola narrowed her eyes at him but didn't release him, and Dagur continued, "The problem is that you can't sail back in time. So don't sail. Fly. They're faster, you know that, you just flew on that one."

 

Bola glanced to Stormfly and released her hold on Dagur's shirt and stepped back. Her stance was more relaxed, but the chief herself was still visibly tense. She looked to Stoick instead and asked, "Is he right?"

 

Stoick was silent for a moment, looking between the two, and he nodded carefully, "Aye, but Hiccup and Astrid have too many duties here to let go with you, and you would have to leave alone if you planned to travel that way."

 

"That would actually be for the best," Bola muttered, and she crouched to return her dagger to its home in her boot. "If flying doesn't work then Nott and Heather would be safe on Berk. When the storm's over they return with the boat."

 

Dagur looked back to Hiccup with a grin, "Go get the twins."


	25. Chapter 25

Despite all of the obvious reasons for not letting the twins fly Bola back to Berserk it actually seemed to be the best chance to get her back to her own island and people. Ruffnut and Tuffnut were one of the few on Berk who weren't as terrified of the prospect of a Berserker at their back, a combination of their love of destruction, lack of care, and a linage from their father's side that connected them to the people. As far as the twins were concerned nothing but good things could come from them bringing back the Berserker chief. Although part of that was Dagur pulling the two of them aside by their collars and convincing them that they'd be heroes, maybe even honorary warriors to be celebrated, and probably a few other things he hadn't told Bola he was offering to them. And, as mean as it was for Hiccup to think it, Berk might have been a little better off without having to worry about Barf and Belch suddenly getting orders to either help the destruction, or being told to abandon their current task because it was too boring. Exciting things only really happened when something was about to go very badly wrong.

 

"Now tell me one more time what you're going to do," Hiccup said to the twins. He had tried his hardest to drill it into them, and while he was still worried that they should send someone else there wasn't much he could say to offer another suggestion. Fishlegs wasn't willing to have Bola on Meatlug with him, and even if he was she was the slowest dragon and it wouldn't have been a good pick. Snotlout didn't take orders well from people in his own village, there was no way he'd listen to Bola, and Hookfang was just as bad to ignore orders. Hiccup and Astrid were both needed on Berk in case anything on their own island needed immediate attention.

 

"We go to Berserk," Tuffnut said simply.

 

Hiccup groaned and rubbed his hand over his face, "Yes, that's what you're doing, but tell me each _step_."

 

"Oh. We're going to listen to Bola to find our way there," Tuffnut said.

 

"And we're going to go straight there, as fast as we can," Ruffnut continued.

 

"Then we're gonna see if the storm is coming too fast."

 

"And if it is we stay there until it's gone."

 

"But if it's not we try to come back to Berk."

 

"And then we become berserkers!" Ruffnut grinned triumphantly and Tuffnut laughed and cheered at the finish.

 

"Yeah, you're going to want to talk to Bola about that. _After_ you get her back to her island, alright?" Hiccup said. He didn't want the twins to try to talk about it halfway there when Bola wouldn't humor them. He could just see the twins trying to bargain with her that if she didn't welcome them into the tribe they wouldn't take her back. That was a situation that could only lead to bad things with the anger-prone leader.

 

"Right, that way we can be celebrated right away," Tuffnut grinned.

 

"Yeah, we won't need to wait as long!" Ruffnut added.

 

Hiccup didn't bother explaining to them that they'd be traveling the same amount of time either way. He wasn't even sure how they got to that conclusion, but if it kept them quiet he was willing to take it.

 

\- - -

 

"This is a really awful idea," Hiccup said as he watched the twins fly off. It had taken them a little while longer to get Bola to trust the double-headed dragon enough to get on its back, but it really was her only choice short of risking her ship and crew out on the water in the storm. Hiccup had actually been surprised at her, if it had been Dagur while he still had control of the armada he would have made them set off in the night into the storm instead of trying to make sure his family would be safe.

 

"Yeah, but it's either this or let her go stir-crazy," Dagur said as he watched the Zippleback with Hiccup, then turned to him. "I have to board up my hut, don't I?"

 

"Uh-huh," Hiccup watched Barf and Belch a little longer before starting to go get planks of wood. "It won't be too bad. Half of your hut is hewn right out of the rock on the cliff it's built against, it's sturdier than a lot of them. It's pretty much the one thing Mildew did right."

 

Out of all of the buildings that had been repaired or rebuilt over the years that one hut, set far apart from the village and farms and with half of it built out of carved stone, had survived most of the dragon attacks with minimal damage. It was just as sturdy against storms, although more prone to wild animals wandering uncomfortably close and with the threat of being trapped in the woods if a forest fire sprung up.

 

"Great, you and Heather will get through it fast."

 

"Oh no, there's no way you're making me and your sister do the work," Hiccup said firmly. Dagur gestured to his slung arm, but Hiccup started to put some of the smaller planks of wood into his good arm instead. "You can hold the plank, or someone else can hold it while you're hammering them in."

 

Dagur grumbled and shifted the weight of wood in his arm up to his shoulder to hold it a little easier. Hiccup brought Toothless over so he could put saddlebags on him filled with nails and a few hammers, and he climbed up onto the dragon.

 

"You won't be able to ride while carrying wood, but I have a few people I need to get supplies too, and I can meet you up there. Astrid said Heather got off at your place, so I can tell Heather and Nott what's happening when I get there," Hiccup said as he rubbed over Toothless' neck, and the Night Fury flared his wings in preparation for flight.

 

\- - -

 

Hiccup had taken longer than he would have liked to get nails and hammers to everyone who still needed them. Far too many people liked to complain that he hadn't given them enough nails, or that they needed a better hammer, or that he was too slow in getting there--how in the world keeping him from flying off to the next person so they complain that he was _too slow_ was going to help anything at all he had no idea, but people still did it. It was dark by the time he was finally up at Dagur's hut, and the planks of wood Dagur had brought up the path were leaning against the wall by the door. Hiccup hadn't beat him there like he thought he would, and he moved to get off of Toothless and go to the door.

 

"Hey," Hiccup opened the door without much of an announcement and stepped in. He nearly jumped back when something screamed at him from inside, and he looked down at Trapjaw before sighing. "You scared the life out of me."

 

"It's not much better for us in here when he screams like that," Heather called over. Hiccup looked up to her, and around. This place had never really seemed very homey at all, it always seemed too dark and too cold the few times Hiccup had seen it while Mildew owned it, and after that Dagur had been laid up and sick. Even when Dagur was up and moving and there was a fire in the pit it seemed too empty. But Nott was sitting at the table and seemed to have decided it belonged only to her, she had bowls and cups filled and a candle sputtering that she was singing the edge of something with. Whatever it was it had left the hut smoky inside with a faint savory smell. Heather was seated beside the fire pit, half curled around a book she was looking through and smiling faintly up at Hiccup before she looked back to it. Between the two of them it made the place seem a little more... welcoming, weirdly enough. Or maybe it was just whatever Nott was burning that made him feel like that. Dagur wasn't in the lit area and Hiccup glanced around.

 

"Where's Dagur?" he asked when he was sure that the young man wasn't anywhere in there.

 

"Collecting firewood. I told him not to burn the planks he brought," Heather answered.

 

"Good call," Hiccup wasn't really planning to come in, but Toothless pushed his head against the rider's back and shoved him in. the Night Fury went over to Heather first where she rubbed under his chin, then to Nott to nose into a full bag beside her chair. Nott didn't even seem to notice Toothless beside her.

 

"Hey, is that alright for him to do?" Hiccup hurried over to try pull Toothless' head out of the bag he had managed to shove it into, and it was only when the Night Fury raised his head with a mouthful of grasses that Nott looked over to him.

 

"I'm not sure," she said quietly and lazily, and turned back to the one leaf she was toasting over the candle. "The little purple one likes it, though, and there's enough to gather later..."

 

Hiccup frowned and reached to take the grass from Toothless' mouth, he give it a tentative sniff and blinked. "Wait, is this was you gave to Dagur before?"

 

"I dried it and made it into tea," Nott nodded slowly and set her blade of grass aside to pick up another.

 

"I could have told you what it'd do," Hiccup sighed and he just let Toothless eat what was in his mouth. The Night Fury flopped down and rubbed his head on the bag and he started to purr as he wallowed. "That's dragon nip, it doesn't have any healing properties, it just makes you act like... well, like that."

 

Nott looked down to Toothless again and reached down carefully and hesitantly. She froze when Toothless looked up at her, and seemed to decide against touching him since she brought her hand back up to the table. "It has a calming effect, too. It seems to be useful as a sleep aid."

 

"Yeah, I know that," Hiccup sighed and looked down to Toothless. Trapjaw had wandered over and was pulling on the edge of the bag to try to get it out from under the larger dragon, and something clicked in Hiccup's mind. " _That's_ why Trapjaw was acting so nice earlier. Dagur smelled like dragon nip."

 

"It wasn't the only thing in his drink," Nott seemed offended at the comment, but after a moment she looked to have forgotten anyone else was in the room again and went back to singeing dragon nip.

 

"There's no way you're flying tonight, is there, bud?" Hiccup crouched down to rub over inky black scales and got a loud purr in response. He smiled a little, and as much as he knew he should get back it was kind of nice being able to have an excuse to call it an early night.


	26. Chapter 26

Hiccup held the nail in place and nearly drove it in with the hammer, but the wood slipped under him and he jerked the tool back before he crushed his own fingers. "Watch it!"

 

"Stop fussing, it just slipped," Dagur said as he pushed the plank back into place. They were nearly done, and Dagur was tired of hold up one chunk of wood while Hiccup hammered it in only to have to do it all over again.

 

"You could thank me for helping you," Hiccup said as he went back to fixing the wood in place. He was more cautious this time, and it meant he was slower to get the nails in.

 

"I already did."

 

"What? No you didn't, I had to drag you out here to do this," Hiccup huffed.

 

"Alright, fine. Thanks."

 

"Wait, you're actually saying it?" Hiccup glanced to Dagur.

 

"Yeah. What, did you want to argue about it some more?"

 

"No. Maybe. I'm used to arguing with you," Hiccup brought down the hammer again and yelped as he got his finger under the heavy metal. Of _course_ he'd do it on the last nail. There's no way he could finish a job without at least one new bruise or cut. Dagur reached to take Hiccup's hand, but with a wince the smaller boy yanked it out of his grip.

 

"Hold still, will you?" Dagur growled and grabbed at Hiccup's hand again to pull him closer and toward the meager candle light from the doorway. Once Hiccup stopped trying to pull away the bigger teen was more gentle and turned Hiccup's hand over to inspect where he had hit it. "It looks alright."

 

"It doesn't _feel_ alright," Hiccup grumbled. It wasn't broken or anything, it was just going to be bruised for a while, and probably hurt for the rest of the night. Dagur pulled Hiccup's hand up closer to his mouth and for a moment the smaller boy thought he was going to kiss the bruise. Instead Dagur licked it.

 

"Ew," Hiccup wrinkled his nose and pulled his hand back. "You're worse than my dragon, you know that?"

 

"Blow on it, the cold makes it feel better," Dagur said. Hiccup grumbled but he did it anyway. It was a slight relief to have the aching spot cooled for a moment, but he could have done that on his own.

 

"You're still worse than Toothless, at least he waits until it's a worse injury to lick me."

 

"Worse like what?"

 

"Just cuts and burns and things like that," Hiccup shrugged. He was used to being covered in scattered small injuries from working in the forge and recently from working with dragons, he just wasn't used to dragon drool on those injuries.

 

"We're done now, right?" Dagur said as he looked over the boarded up hut. Any weak spots were covered, as well as places that really should have been repaired by now. Hiccup made a note to try to get someone out here for that, and sighed as that just reminded him of the fact Dagur likely wasn't going to be able to stay. The longer Dagur stayed on Berk the odder it was to think of him leaving for good.

 

"Yeah, we're done," the dragon rider sighed. He wasn't particularly good at hiding the sudden downturn in his mood and Dagur came closer to look over him with a frown. Hiccup glanced up at him and he was already trying to think of a way to explain the sudden change in his tone. His finger was worse, he was worried about not going back down the village, the storm coming--but he didn't need any of his excuses. Dagur reached up to brush the smaller boy's brown hair back and he pulled him closer as he did it, to lean in and kiss his forehead. The more rational part of Hiccup knew that it was likely just to comfort him from bruising his finger, but he still felt like it was some sign that Dagur knew what he was worried about.

 

"Get inside, if we're done that means we can stop standing out in the cold," Dagur pushed Hiccup toward the doorway and Hiccup nodded. He collected the last of the nails and Dagur grabbed up the few planks of wood to bring them inside.

 

While they had been outside Heather had gone to bed. It wasn't particularly surprising, Nott had been working like before and the hut was filled inside with the smell of smoke and dragon nip. It made Hiccup feel tired as soon as he took a deep breath of warm air, and Heather had been breathing it in the whole time.

 

"Hey, do you think it's about time to call it a night?" Hiccup ventured to the shaman. She didn't notice the request, or the second one. Hiccup sighed and gave up on getting her attention.

 

"Nott!" Dagur suddenly barked. Hiccup jumped and Heather jerked awake from where she was curled up, but Nott only looked up at him with a mildly questioning stare. "Stop burning things, it's time to get ready for bed."

 

"You only have one bed..." Nott said as she looked back to her workspace. "And Heather is already in it."

 

"Then get ready for the floor, I don't care, but I don't want you burning the hut down," Dagur said it firmly and he licked the tip of his forefinger and thumb before reaching over to touch the hot wax of Nott's candle and pinch the flame of it quickly to put it out. Nott frowned and glared at her brother but she didn't move to relight her candle with the dying fire in the fire pit. Dagur turned on Heather then, going to the bed and holding his hand out, "Give me a blanket, I know you took them all."

 

"No I didn't..." Heather mumbled and curled up under the covers a little more firmly. She was tucked under the bedding like she expected Dagur to haul her out of it and toss her aside and Hiccup expected that too, but all Dagur did was swat her shoulder under the bundling. After a moment Heather sighed and reached out to give him the corner of a green and mottled blanket that Dagur had to pull out from her little cocoon.

 

"Here," Dagur said as he tossed the blanket over to Hiccup as soon as he had extracted it. "You're probably going to just want to sleep on Toothless or something."

 

"What about me?" Nott said as she pushed her burnt leaves into a pile, then started scooping the pile into a bowl.

 

"You're sleeping with Heather," Dagur said. Nott didn't seem to care but Heather wrinkled her nose and sat up. Dagur pushed her back down and spoke low, "You know she's going to fall asleep at the table, just humor her."

 

Hiccup glanced back to Nott. He had heard Dagur well enough and wanted to make sure Nott wasn't going to be upset--but she didn't even seem to notice. She did need to be yelled at before she even noticed someone wanted to talk to her before, after all. That had happened to Hiccup often enough, he'd be working on a new project and Gobber would have had to try to get his attention a few times before he even noticed there was someone there.

 

"Where are you sleeping?" Hiccup asked as he settled down on the ground and leaned against Toothless. The Night Fury opened his eyes and looked up at Hiccup, and when he settled back down the dragon curled a little more loosely so Hiccup would be able to sleep against him comfortably.

 

"Floor," Dagur shrugged. He was removing his armor to set it aside, putting his large helmet aside near the door and slowly getting the rest of the metal off to join it. Hiccup shifted as he tugged the blanket over himself, looking down to Toothless and stroking over the black scaled head before he pushed the Night Fury's front leg over a little more to make the space the dragon had cleared a little larger.

 

"How about sleeping with me?" Hiccup asked. He tried to sound like it wasn't a big deal, but his voice had shaken in the middle of the question and he could feel heat rising in his face. Heather giggled from where she was on the bed and Hiccup felt like more of an idiot. He was considering hiding under one of Toothless' wings until the night was over, but he was jarred out of the thought by Dagur sitting next to him. He looked around Hiccup to Toothless, who had half-opened one green eye to watch Dagur.

 

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" he asked.

 

"Yeah, it'll be fine. Right, bud?" Hiccup smiled and rubbed over the dragon's neck, and Toothless made a soft happy sound at being touched and settled back down. "See? If he hadn't just eaten a ton of dragon nip it'd be a bad idea, but like this he shouldn't care."

 

Dagur didn't need much more encouragement as he sprawled out beside Hiccup and tugged the blanket over himself. Hiccup was tense, more than he thought he'd be. It was weird enough to offer to sleep with Dagur, wasn't it? And Hiccup did it in front of his family. Hiccup shifted and squirmed to get comfortable, and he only finally settled down when Dagur put his arm around him to hold the smaller boy against his side.

 

 _Maybe it's weird, but it's a nice feeling weird_ , Hiccup decided as he relaxed against Dagur. Most of the larger boy's scent by now was like what Hiccup was used to, dragons and fish and smoke and sweat and dirt and saltwater, so it was hardly noticed. What Hiccup only really noticed was the smell of old blood, slight remnants of kills that could never fully be scrubbed out of clothes. It wasn't overpowering, but it was still obviously there once Hiccup recognized it.

 

"It took Dagur four tries to kill his first bear," Heather said quietly, as if she knew where Hiccup's thoughts had brought him.

 

"You're telling this story again?" Dagur murmured from beside Hiccup. From the table there came the sound of grinding as Nott worked her dried ingredients into a powder.

 

"I like this story," Heather said, and Hiccup could hear the smile in her voice. Dagur just grunted and shifted a little as he settled, but he didn't object and Heather continued.

 

"He thought he was strong enough to do it all on his own. He was twelve and thought he was full grown already," she laughed softly. "He didn't even get close the first time, he ran away as soon as it noticed him. The second time was the end of that year, and he tried to drag Bola with him. You were going to try to use her as bait, weren't you?"

 

Dagur made a sound that was neither a yes or a no.

 

"They both came back bloodied. Our mother was livid. She was even angrier when they admitted they hadn't been attacked, they ran away again and went right through a bramble patch."

 

Hiccup smiled a little. He never thought of Dagur as someone who'd run away from anything. But he had been twelve, and now... Hiccup frowned a little as he thought of something, and he patted Dagur's chest to get his attention.

 

"How old _are_ you?" Hiccup asked quietly.

 

"Nineteen," Dagur answered, and he already sounded as though he was about to fall asleep. As soon as Hiccup had his answer he felt like an idiot. He should have known that, shouldn't he? Although Oswald had only ever said Dagur was his son and to treat him well when he visited, and the only thing Hiccup had ever been aware of was that Dagur was older than he was. He hadn't thought there were four years between them, though.

 

"The third time Dagur was thirteen. Our father forced him to wait until he was bigger, and then he had to go out in a hunting party. Dagur sulked and whined when he came back, complaining that everyone was too loud and nobody was really interested in hunting, like he thought he was the only one who took it seriously," Heather continued, unbothered by Hiccup's slight dilemma. She was getting quieter, her words almost slurred as she was falling asleep again with the help of the dragon nip smoke still lingering in the hut.

 

"When did he get the bear?" Hiccup finally asked when Heather didn't seem like she'd keep going on her own.

 

"Hm?" she made a soft sound and there was a shuffle of cloth as she turned over in the bed. "When he was fifteen. He went alone again that time, gone all day, nobody knew where he had been until he came back in the boat with his kill..."

 

Hiccup turned to tuck against Dagur, who had gone to sleep already and was breathing deeply and evenly.

 

 _Fifteen... so he would have killed something the same age I didn't kill Toothless,_ Hiccup thought as he buried his nose against Dagur's shirt. The faint smell of blood came back to him from the cloth, and coupled with the story Hiccup could picture him like that. Dagur, as young as Hiccup, with a dead animal nearly twice his size, blood dripping from his hands and weapon and a grin that was too predatory, too sharp, too cruel.

 

Hiccup fell asleep with that image in his mind.


	27. Chapter 27

Despite the gruesome thought that stayed with Hiccup as he fell asleep he slept fairly well. Better than he usually did when he had to sleep on the ground. He woke up slowly in the morning light, and he squinted as he raised his head up to see where it was coming from. The door was propped open to help get rid of the smell of smoke, and through it Hiccup could see that while there was light the clouds of a storm were already rolling in. The sky was nothing but white and gray, like it was a ceiling of snow just waiting to fall. It was weird, though, the usual drop in temperature that came with a sudden bad storm wasn't there. Maybe they had a little more time even with the clouds looming gloomily overhead.

 

Hiccup started to get up from Toothless and there was a growl by beside him. His first thought was Dagur--but that wasn't right. Hiccup was alone against Toothless' side now, and the only people even in the hut were Hiccup and Toothless, and Nott slumped over the table with her head in her folded arms. Dagur had been right, she worked through the night and just went to sleep at her work, and she was too far away for Hiccup to hear her growl if she was going to. The dragon rider moved the blanket up carefully and looked down at the little purple dragon curled up against his side and squinting at him with a glare. Trapjaw didn't like being woken up rudely when his bed decided to get up. It took Hiccup a couple of minutes of nudging and coaxing and scooting, but eventually he got Trapjaw off of himself and onto Toothless' leg instead. Finally he could get up and go to the door, looking out at the edge of the forest and the plot of land that still wasn't being used for anything useful yet. The dull light that came through the clouds gave everything a slight gray and dreary look. Hiccup looked back up to the sky and frowned, he hoped the twins would get back soon. As annoying as they could be he never really wanted anything seriously bad to happen to them.

 

Hiccup was stirred from the thought by a rustling on the path, and he smiled when he looked over and saw Dagur and Heather making their way back up to the hut. "Hey. Not a great morning, huh?"

 

"Morning?" Dagur frowned as he threw a small loaf of bread to Hiccup. Hiccup caught it and tore a bit off of it to pop it into his mouth. He didn't realize until he had food in front of him how hungry he was.

 

"It's the afternoon," Dagur continued, and Hiccup choked on his mouthful of bread.

 

"It's what?" the rider yelped as he looked back up to the sky to try to get some idea of where the sun was. That couldn't be right, not seeing the sun messed him up a little in knowing what time it was, but only by a few hours, not by half a day.

 

"Your father was looking for you," Heather added, and smiled when Hiccup gave her a worried look. "I told him you were tired and it was late when you delivered the wood, so you stayed with us."

 

Hiccup nodded and thanked her, but he needed to get going and he went inside to rub over Toothless' head to urge the Night Fury awake. Toothless huffed and squirmed and rolled onto his belly--and with a jerk he was up on his four feet. He had rolled on top of Trapjaw, and between the little dragon's sharp horns and loud scream Toothless was rudely awakened. Hiccup winced and looked back to Nott, but other than curling up a little more determinedly and mumbling for a moment she didn't show any signs of waking.

 

"Come on, bud, we really need to get going," Hiccup said as he rubbed over Toothless' chin. The dragon nosed at what was left of his bread and Hiccup gave it to him. Bread wasn't as good for dragons as meat, but otherwise Toothless wasn't going to get breakfast before flying to the village and it seemed cruel not to feed him. Once he swallowed it down Toothless was more inclined to follow Hiccup out of the hut and crouch down for the slight boy to get onto his back.

 

"You were already down at the village?" Hiccup asked as he looked to Dagur and Heather. They nodded and he continued, "Did you get any orders?"

 

"To keep out of the way," Dagur shrugged. He seemed just as happy not to have to do what Stoick told him to.

 

Hiccup stroked over Toothless' head to calm him back down since his dragon was ready to fly now that he was out and had Hiccup on his back. "How long do you think until Barf and Belch can make it back?"

 

"Sometime tonight, maybe?" Heather offered and she glanced to Dagur for confirmation.

 

"Either tonight or early tomorrow if they're going to make it back in time," Dagur said.

 

"Alright, I want you to go up to a high point facing Berserk and keep watch for them. If they do make it back sometime today I want them sent to me, I'm sure I'll have something for them to do," Hiccup said. He slipped his foot into the pedal and opened the tail fin, and as soon as he could Toothless took up into the air.

 

\- - -

 

As the day wore on it became more obvious that the two day prediction of the storm was the more accurate one. The day darkened faster than it should have and the wind picked up until it was nearly blowing the dragon riders off course. Too soon the dragons were grounded for their own good. It was an annoyance, and not just to the academy students. The few dragons that were tamed and could catch fish without eating them as soon as they had them had been helping to stock the food storage to make sure that running out of food or having to worry about finding more wouldn't be a problem. With the dragons on the island, and Stoick not allowing any ships to go out, there wasn't a chance to catch more. It also meant Hiccup had a new job that occupied pretty much all of his time: Finding places the semi-tame dragons on Berk could hunker down in.

 

These dragons weren't necessarily wild. They listened to people on occasion, and they'd come into the village, but they didn't yet have anyone to actually take care of them or watch over them. And, without a trainer, they didn't have stables they could settle down in.

 

"Here you go, how's this look?" Hiccup said as he rubbed over the pebbly side of a dusky red Gronkle. The dragon looked from the cave Hiccup was coaxing it toward, then back at the boy, and fidgeted in place without really going forward or back. Hiccup sighed and looked back to Fishlegs, "Think you can help me out a little here?"

 

Fishlegs' dragon knowledge had made it so he was better suited to this task with Hiccup than most of the others. Snotlout was off gathering fresh water, and Astrid was essentially Stoick's personal assistant at the moment. She was delivering orders for him, and if it was necessary she was breaking up arguments and sending vikings back to their duties.

 

"Let's see, you just need to show him--er, her--that it's safe. See?" Fishlegs went to the cave and stood just inside of it. "Nothing wrong in here! It's nice and safe, and..."

 

Fishlegs trailed off as he heard something behind him, a creepy clicking sound that echoed eerily in the dark cave. Fishlegs froze, and part of him was convinced that maybe if he didn't look behind himself there wouldn't be anything there. it didn't work, the clicking got louder and there was a low guttural sound that joined in with it. Fishlegs finally looked behind himself, and there were two long necks snaking along the ground of the cave, each with a glaring head. One head was growling and keeping lower, and the other raised slightly as it clicked it's teeth together and sparked at the husky boy. Fishlegs yelped and ran out of the cave with the Zippleback mock charging as it ran to chase him off. It wasn't actually charging, it didn't even really want a fight. Fear class dragons did that, they scared enemies and prey into a panic. Sometimes it turned out they were some of the most easily scared dragons because their class tended not to be the strongest, or smartest.

 

When Fishlegs was out of the gas range and had ducked behind Meatlug Hiccup hurried closer to put his hands up and try to get the two-headed dragon's attention on himself instead. The two yellow heads winced back and the gas head opened its mouth to growl louder while the sparking head clicked it's long teeth together faster to shower Hiccup with flecks of light. Hiccup yelped and had to pat the sparks out when they landed on his clothes and threatened to burn him, but once he was done he looked back up and reached to touch one of the heads under its chin carefully.

 

"Hey, it's ok, we're not going to steal your spot, see?" Hiccup said as he rubbed over the scales. The head he was rubbing slowly relaxed, and the other head settled and came closer to nudge it's nose against his arm lightly. "Yeah, you guys are fine. You're just worried about the storm."

 

Hiccup looked back to the Gronkle they had been trying to help, and slowly the Boulder class creature came closer to the cave. The mystery of the thing lurking inside had been solved, and when the Gronkle could see it was another dragon she was more willing to trust it. The Zippleback hesitated and shrank back from the other dragon for a moment, and it was only when Hiccup moved over to pet over the big red head that the Hideous Zippleback relaxed. One head came closer to the Gronkle and chittered something, and the double-headed dragon came out of the care slowly. The Gronkle waddled inside as soon as it could and the Zippleback eased back in again in a way that ensured it would still be able to guard the cave's entrance they way it had been before.

 

"I think that's the last one we had to find a place for," Fishlegs said once the Zippleback had settled back into the darkness and seemed to disappear.

 

"Yeah, thankfully they all seem to want to be out of the storm," Hiccup said as he looked up to the sky again. He sighed at the clouds, they had gone from white-and-gray to gray-and-black.

 

"It's worrying, though, isn't it?" Fishlegs asked. "It's like they know how bad it's going to be--and that it's going to be _really_ bad. They don't always act like this."

 

Hiccup nodded, "Here's hoping they all stay where they are. It's getting too dark to keep going, and I don't want the next scared dragon in a cave to do worse than just try to chase us off."

 

Fishlegs nodded and the two started off. True to Stoick's orders they were keeping their dragons grounded and Toothless and Meatlug followed along behind them on the long trek back to the village.


	28. Chapter 28

The twins hadn't returned that night, and it was late in the afternoon during the day after when Barf and Belch finally landed on Berk again. Dagur had been the one to see them and once he got Sharpshot away from play fighting with Trapjaw--it at least seemed playful to the crazed boy--he sent a note of it to Hiccup. The former berserker could have left his one task after the first day, like Heather had, but there was little for him to do on Berk since he didn't know the methods of getting the village ready for a storm and nobody felt the urge to teach him. That and when Stoick did catch sight of Dagur recently he seemed more inclined to glare at the boy, and Dagur was sure that eventually without Hiccup around the chief would try to rid his people of what he believed to be a pest. So it was simply easier, and gave the illusion of being productive, when Dagur would sit up on a high point on Berk and watch the horizon to the southeast.

 

Almost as soon as the Hideous Zippleback was on the ground Toothless was flying low over the village to where Dagur had set up camp, and at seeing the twins and their dragon he landed by them. Hiccup hopped off of the saddle and Sharpshot sat in it instead, looking far too pleased with himself. Trapjaw barked a few times before he took off to fly down so he could continue wrestling with the other Terror and Dagur decided it was as good a time as any to go down himself.

 

"You should have seen it! There were bones all over the place!" The twins were always loud, and Ruffnut's voice carried over the distance to Dagur easily with the help of the wind. "There were all kinds, all sorts of dead monsters, it was amazing!"

 

"And we even got to keep one!" Tuffnut yelled with his sister and took his prize from a bag that had been tied around the base of Belch's neck. He hauled out a huge skull, long ago stripped of meat and the bone bleached from sitting out in the sun.

 

"And that is a..." Hiccup said as he looked at the skull. It wasn't a dragon's skull, although he had worried about that at first, and it was cracked in a few places and there were a lot of teeth missing from it.

 

"It's a yak skull," Dagur said when he came up to them. The twins both laughed and rolled their eyes, and Tuff hoisted up the skull proudly.

 

"Uh, _no_. It's a monster," he grinned smugly.

 

"Yeah! I mean, it doesn't even _look_ like a yak. Where's all the fur, huh?" Ruffnut laughed. She reached up to yank the prize away from her brother, and it resulted in an awkward tug of war between the two.

 

"It's a yak," Hiccup said and he looked up to Dagur. "Heather and Nott have already been moved to the great hall, and I told them to bring some of your stuff."

 

"What? Why?" Dagur frowned at him. "You said my place was sturdier than most of the houses on Berk."

 

"Yeah, it is, but the storm's coming up and everyone needs to be in one place. Even you, and your sisters, and Johann," Hiccup sighed and glanced back to the twins. They were still fighting over the bone and had ended up on the ground, rolling around and kicking at each other while Barf and Belch watched them.

 

"If you stay up there you might be alright, but you don't have food or supplies, and if any of you get hurt you'll probably be stuck up there," Hiccup said when he looked back to Dagur.

 

"You don't know how long the storm's going to be," Dagur grumbled.

 

"Neither do you," Hiccup leaned closer as he said it and nudged his arm against Dagur's. "You're strong, you can handle being cooped up with a bunch of people for a while, right?"

 

Dagur just growled low in response.

 

Hiccup shifted awkwardly for a moment and reached up to hold Dagur's good hand as he tried again, "It'll be a good way to show my dad you can get along with people here."

 

Dagur curled his fingers around Hiccup's hand as he let out an exaggerated sigh, "Even if I say no I have to do it anyway, don't I?"

 

"Yeah," Hiccup smiled a little. "Might as well say yes while you have the chance. I don't want to have to tie you up and stick you in the corner."

 

Dagur grinned sharply and laughed at that.

 

\- - -

 

The twins had come back at nearly the perfect time. The clouds overhead had darkened and were thick enough that the dark came a lot faster, and only an hour after the Zippleback had landed the wind had picked up badly. It whipped through the village and bit at anyone who was still boarding up the doors to their homes or collecting the last few things they felt they'd need for their time away from their houses. In Hiccup's experience everyone brought more than they'd ever actually need--even he was guilty of that sometimes--but nobody was worse about that this time than Johann. The trader had brought in nearly everything from his boat that wasn't nailed down or too damaged or waterlogged after the Scaldron attack to justify saving. He had pleaded with Stoick to have some extra space because of his wares, and promised to make up for the _slight_ intrusion the next time he came to Berk. Johann had only placed a few things in the great hall at first, a reasonable amount for things that were too valuable to risk losing if his ship was damaged while it was out of the water for repairs. Then a few more crates were added. And a few barrels. And too soon it seemed like the whole boat had been unloaded and tucked away in the hall. This meant the obvious problem of there being less space for people was an issue, as well as the should-have-been-obvious problem that, since everyone had to share their space with the wares, they felt they should have a few of them to make up for the injustice of being stored with them. How it made sense Hiccup had no idea, but enough people were loudly saying it that it was impossible to argue against them intelligently.

 

"You know I adore Berk, I truly do, Master Hiccup," Johann said as he pulled the boy aside. "But I've begun to feel as though I'm trapped with thugs and thieves!"

 

"Johann, even when it's just us here the great hall is cramped and uncomfortable for everyone," Hiccup sighed as he was brought over to the pile of goods. Johann was, once again, trying to fend off anyone who was coming too close without any intent to trade or purchase. Hiccup hadn't even tried to join him in that fight, he had enough to worry about without adding Johann's troubles to his own. "But now we have guests and you brought in all your stuff, so there's less space than usual and that's making everyone--"

 

"Shoo, off, away with you!" Johann suddenly cut Hiccup off, hurrying over to a couple of little kids who had started rummaging around in one of the crates. He went to chase them off, and Hiccup jumped a little when Snotlout came from behind him and started to the trader's goods to look through them himself.

 

"What are you doing?" Hiccup sighed. He wasn't up to actually keeping the other boy from stealing. Honestly, he was ready to crawl under one of the tables pushed against the walls and go to sleep.

 

"This is where my family _always_ stays," Snotlout said as if that answered everything,. He opened one barrel, then started looking through a different crate, obviously not caring if he was making a mess. "So me and my dad feel like we should get _some_ kind of compensation."

 

"That is... definitely a Jorgenson way of thinking," Hiccup said. Snotlout grinned wide as if that sort of comment was a compliment, and he pulled out a gleaming silver plate. He looked over it and smiled smugly at his reflection in the shining surface, and then turned to Hiccup.

 

"Do you think my dad would like this?" Snotlout wiggled the plate in his fingers some, as if Hiccup needed some help to know what the broader boy was talking about.

 

"Do you like it?"

 

"Well _duh_."

 

"Then yeah, he'd probably like it too."

 

Snotlout looked at his prize again--and at himself in its reflection--and started back to where his family was still settling in. He didn't make it far until the shining silver plate was taken from his hand and he blinked before looking around angrily, "Who took my stuff?!"

 

"I didn't see you pay for it," Heather smiled at him as she went back to Johann's things to put the plate back in its crate.

 

"I don't need to pay," Snotlout grinned and posed some in front of her, and Hiccup looked around. He wasn't sure if Dagur would be the sort of sibling who'd take offense at someone being interested in his sisters. Probably not, but he might just want an excuse to fight someone.

 

"Oh? That's too bad," Heather sighed and closed the crate up. "Because if you _could_ pay for it you would, wouldn't you? But I guess if you really _need_ to steal things..."

 

"What? I don't _need_ to! It was compensation!" Snotlout bristled.

 

"Then we can wait here for Johann to get back to make it fair," Heather smiled. Snotlout grumbled and huffed, and after a minutes of trying to find an argument he stomped off.

 

"Thanks," Hiccup turned to her. It was almost like he could see the slight shift in the way Heather held herself as she stopped acting. She held her eyes a little narrower, and she looked just slightly more dangerous between the knowing look and stance a little more familiar on a Berserker than a Berkian.

 

"There's no need to thank me," Heather said as she leaned against the stacked crates. Hiccup didn't pry, the past few days of getting to know Heather--the real Heather--he'd figured out that she was usually doing something not out of the goodness of her heart but because she wanted something out of it. This was likely one of those times. "Dagur's been bothering people in here, me included. This gives me a reason to get away from him while he's going stir-crazy."

 

"How bad?" Hiccup sighed.

 

"Bad enough your father's been muttering about how much he'll be glad to get right of him. I'm hoping if I help Johann out with this he'll owe me enough of a favor to refuse to take Dagur when he leaves," Heather said. That explained the inclination to help someone, then.

 

"Your brother doesn't really do well in confined spaces, does he?" Hiccup asked as he looked around. It had only been a little while since he got the older boy in the great hall, he had hoped it would be at least a few more hours before any huge problems started showing up.

 

"Absolutely not," Heather sighed. "And he's just going to get worse. Unless..."

 

"Unless?" Hiccup asked.

 

"Nott brought her latest project with her, the dragon nip?" Heather looked over to him. "Dagur calmed down on that, didn't he?"

 

"Calm is one word for it," Hiccup said. "But why didn't you tell Nott to give it to him?"

 

"She doesn't want to waste her new herbs, and Dagur doesn't want to take it willingly," Heather sighed and reached up to slide her fingers through her black hair and brush it out of her face. Hiccup sighed and rubbed over his face. He already knew where this was going.

 

"And now that you asked about it they don't trust you," he finished. There was a soft laugh and he looked over to Heather. She smiled at him and nodded.

 

"But I can tell you where it is," she shifted a little and hauled herself up to sit on the barrel. "And when he's more pleasant it'll be much easier to show your father he'll fit right in. It even makes his Terror nicer after he drinks it."

 

Hiccup looked around the hall. He wasn't stupid, he knew that Heather had already figured out what she was doing when she offered to protect Johann's things. She might have even come over here just for the chance to get Hiccup to drug her brother and make him more tolerable and made up the part about helping Johann. But of all the things he could have been tricked into doing this probably was one that would actually help.

 

"Alright," Hiccup sighed. "Where is it?"


	29. Chapter 29

"So, uh, did you bring the things you were working on before?" Hiccup asked when he made his way over to where Dagur had dropped his family's few things. The older boy was gone for the moment, doing what Hiccup didn't know and he wasn't particularly inclined to try to find out just yet. Nott looked up to Hiccup with a slight touch of curiosity to her otherwise blank face.

 

"Most of it was dried, you spent the whole night I was there on that," Hiccup managed to come up with a quick excuse and pressed on with it. "And if it rains all that work that will be ruined. No matter how well the cracks are patched rain always leaks in a little during bad storms."

 

Nott's face relaxed back to her usual bored, tired expression. There was even the faint trace of a smile as she knelt down to her bedding and rolled it open to take out three wrapped sachets and a small stopped pot. "They are safe enough here."

 

Hiccup was surprised at that. He hadn't thought that Nott would offer to show her herbs so quickly. ...He also didn't know that Nott had more than one, Heather had only mentioned the dragon nip.

 

"Oh, wow, you've uh, been busy," Hiccup said as he knelt down and picked up the pot. Which one would it be in, though? He shook the pot and decided against that one, he could feel something inside that sloshed up against the sides. Whatever was in it wasn't plants, dried or otherwise. Nott took the pot from him and put it back with the others before she clumsily rolled her bedding back up. It was now a loose bundle that started falling apart immediately. She must have gotten help rolling it the first time--likely Heather since she had known where it was, and Dagur didn't seem like he'd be particularly helpful to his siblings for something like this

 

"Many things grow on Berk," Nott drawled quietly.

 

"Yeah," Hiccup said after a moment. She seemed like she was done talking to him, and it was hard to figure out how to make her keep talking once Nott decided she was finished with a conversation. There was a crash and clatter at the other side of the hall and Hiccup looked towards it. There were too many people in the way to really see what was going on, but he could hear raised voices. One of them far too familiar. Hiccup grumbled to himself and reached up to rub over his face.

 

"Dagur is starting a fight," Nott muttered. Hiccup took his hand from his face and looked over to her. She was looking towards the noise too, and away from her bedroll.

 

"Maybe you should try to stop him," Hiccup offered. Nott frowned and then looked back to him with a slight look of confusion in her hazy eyes.

 

"I mean, he'll listen to his sister, right?" he tried to smile as he gestured towards the crowd, hoping to urge her along.

 

"No," Nott said. There was no hesitation, she simply knew Dagur wouldn't listen to her as a fact that couldn't be argued with.

 

"It's at least worth a shot, right?" Hiccup tried again.

 

"Not particularly," Nott moved to sit by her things and settle down. As long as her own belongings were safe enough she didn't seem to care about much else, even her own family. Which made sense, Dagur was about the same, and Bola, and Heather was willing to go against her sister and brother's wishes for some relative quiet.

 

Hiccup sighed and buried his face in his hand again. This was impossible, and it was just going to get worse. He could hear the wind outside and the rain that had started to fall hard against the wood of the building. They weren't going to be able to leave anytime soon.

 

\- - -

 

Astrid grumbled and swore under her breath as she came through the great hall doors and shook herself. The rain was already bad and she had been taking the time to double check the Academy and make sure it was secure, as well as that all the dragons kept there would be safe and sound. She was soaked to the bone when she finally made it back to the warmth of the Great Hall, and by then most everyone had already set up camp there. There were a few exceptions, just a handful of vikings out like Astrid had been making sure Berk was as ready for the storm as she would ever be. Stoick was typically the last to come in, so the fact that people were arguing, loud, shoving, complaining about every little thing when she came in wasn't surprising. Most of them would quiet down when the chief came in, but until then it would be more of the same.

 

Walking along the back wall Astrid started looking for her own family first. She wasn't having much luck and she sighed as she pushed her wet bangs out of her face. For once the blonde hair actually stayed out of her way, slicked back with cold water.

 

"You look cold."

 

Astrid frowned and looked over her shoulder, then glared, "What do you care?"

 

"So mean! You're my friend, of course I care," Heather said as she slid down off of the barrel she was sitting on. She had at some point dug out a large fur from Johann's wares and she had wrapped it around herself to keep warm. The sight made Astrid realize just how wet and cold she was, and she tried hard to suppress a shiver.

 

"Yeah, friend, that's a good one," Astrid started to go around Heather and paused when the girl shrugged off the fur and wrapped it around Astrid instead. The warrior paused and eyed Heather, "What are you doing?"

 

"Hiccup needs your help," Heather said simply. She wasn't acting at the moment, at least not as much as she did when dealing with other Berkians. Astrid already saw through her once, and had even seen Heather acting like herself when the dragon rider had caught her with Stormfly in the middle of the night.

 

"Yeah, I can hear that," Astrid started to shrug off the warm fur out of spite, but Heather held it closed tighter. The blonde girl realized then just how close Heather's hands were to her throat, and she glared at her.

 

"Calm down," Heather said softly. "I'm not going to do anything to you. But you can hear that, right?"

 

Astrid frowned and listened to the crowd. There was the usual level of loud arguments, complaints about the draft and that the fire wasn't hot enough and that the Fireworms in the pit were acting funny--and above that Astrid could hear Dagur and someone else loudly threatening each other. Astrid grimanced and Heather loosened her grip on the fur with a small smile.

 

"My brother is picking a fight with Snotlout," Heather said as she brushed the fur lightly to smooth down where she had ruffled it. "Normally neither of us would care, would we? But like this, in front of everyone, and with Snotlout's father there to see it... well, it seems like something that needs to be stopped quickly, doesn't it?"

 

"And what do you want me to do about it?" Astrid asked guardedly.

 

"Just stop the fight," Heather said with a smile.

 

Astrid frowned as she thought, then smirked as an idea came to her, "Alright. But you're going to have to help me."

 

\- - -

 

"You don't even belong here!" Snotlout yelled. He had been the first in line for dinner--a pretty amazing feat since the whole village was there--and had been overly proud of the fact he was the first with a plate of food. And, while bragging to the twins who were sitting and sulking on their belongings as their parents got their meals before the kids could do so, Snotlout had been shoved from behind and dropped his food. He yelled insults before he even turned around and saw it was Dagur. That didn't stop him, though, if anything seeing the former berserker boy just made him even angrier.

 

"I can see that, judging by you I'm not stupid or ugly enough," Dagur spat at him with a sharp grin. The twins had each picked a side when the two hadn't backed down and Dagur and Snotlout starting throwing minor insults at each other. Ruffnut was urging on Snotlout, telling him he shouldn't take that, and Tuffnut was telling Dagur to keep going. The twins didn't actually care which one got the better of the other, they just wanted to see a fight. A proper fight, with fists and blood and missing teeth. They just about got it, too. Snotlout charged at the bigger boy and Dagur stood his ground, grinning hard and sharply and ready to greet the black-haired boy with his fist--but Dagur was yanked hard from the back and went stumbling backwards, with Snotlout missing the punch he had aimed at Dagur's face and tripping over his own feet as he tried to twist towards him again. Dagur snarled and twisted to look behind him at who had pulled him away, and Astrid glared down at him.

 

"You're in the way, the rest of us need food too," she said as she walked around Dagur. The former chief looked over to Snotlout--but Heather was kneeling down and helping Snotlout up as she fussed over what slight scrapes he got from falling. Snotlout was taking the attention greedily, though, and other than one glare shot at Dagur he was giving Heather the bulk of his attention now. With his target distracted and Astrid too far away to bother Dagur just gave up on the fight--and Dagur was aware that while he was sure he could beat Snotlout again he wasn't as willing to trust that he could overpower Astrid with just one arm.

 

He shoved himself up off the ground and stalked away while Ruffnut and Tuffnut whined that their show had been ruined.


	30. Chapter 30

"You shouldn't fight in here," Nott drawled as Dagur came back. Dagur snarled as his response and made to backhand her. Hiccup winced at the motion but Nott didn't, and Dagur's hand missed her face by about an inch. She was used to her brother and older sister trying to exert control through force--or through the threat of force--and she was unaffected by it by now.

 

"Who were you arguing with?" she continued as Dagur sat down with a growl. He was far enough away that she had to twist to see him, and after a moment of craning her neck Nott just shifted and turned toward Dagur. Hiccup looked back down to her badly rolled bedding and back to the siblings. This was a terrible idea, there'd be no way to get away with stealing Nott's things while they were both right there... but this was the first chance he really had. He scooted a little closer to the bedroll and reached in carefully to tug out one of the wrapped sachets carefully. 

 

"Why do you care?" Dagur barked, and even if Hiccup knew it wasn't directed at him at all he still froze for a moment. Hiccup took a deep breath and kept going, tugging the package out enough to open it a little and he reached in to get a pinch of the powdered plant. How would he know this was the right stuff, though? He rubbed it between his fingers and raised it up carefully to sniff it. Dragon nip had a fairly distinct smell, but this didn't seem to smell like anything--it didn't smell like anything but he suddenly had to sneeze.

 

"I want to know if you're going to do anything to them later," Nott said slowly. If nothing else the slow drawling was helping to buy Hiccup time. He held his breath to keep from sneezing and shoved the parcel back in. That wasn't it, so he had two more to check.

 

"Why don't you do something useful and poison him for me?" Dagur growled. Hiccup eased out the second wrapped satchel carefully and wiggled a finger inside of it--and he immediately knew this wasn't it either. Whatever Nott had collected wasn't dried yet, these leaves were still soft.

 

"I do not have anything dangerous with me," Nott answered with a small shrug. That was a small comfort to Hiccup, at least. Whatever he just sniffed wasn't going to get him sick. He had to hurry, though, he could feel his chest starting to burn from holding his breath, and the prickling tickle in his nose was still there, as soon as he took a breath in he'd be sneezing his head off.

 

"Then what good are you?" Dagur grumbled and looked away. Nott seemed fine with letting the conversation end there and started turning back. Hiccup grabbed the last satchel quickly and tucked it into his belt where his vest would cover it. He stood up with a start, and he wished he hadn't because now they were both staring at him but he _really_ felt like he had to get away. He finally stopped holding his breath--and like he knew as soon as he took a breath he was sneezing from the herbs he had sniffed before.

 

"Are you sick?" Dagur said as he watched Hiccup try to catch his breath between sneezing.

 

"I--y-yeah, think so," Hiccup sniffled when he finally felt done and reached up to wipe his nose. "I'm--going to go get tea, try to clear myself up. I'll bring you some too."

 

Hiccup didn't give Dagur a chance to agree or disagree to it, just leaving with the dried dragon nip and trying to rub away what was left of the powder in his nose.

 

\- - -

 

At least once he had the nip getting a mug of hot water for it wasn't as hard a task. He just had to push his way through the line for food to get to the kitchens for a spare cup and boiling water. And then try not to spill it when he was pushed out of the kitchen and back into the crowd who were far more interested in getting him out of the way so they could get dinner. He was nearly away from the group when something hooked his vest from behind and lifted him up. Hiccup wiggled and squirmed to look behind him, and it turned out 'hooked' was the perfect word for it. Gobber was hoisting Hiccup up and carrying him the last few feet away from the crowd with the long hook he could attach to his stump.

 

"Oh, hey. Is my dad back?" Hiccup wiggled until he was set back down. He put the mug down on the closest table and took the wrapped herbs from his belt to pour about half of them into the water. He wasn't really sure if he should measure them out--he probably should, but he didn't know what the proper amount for the tea was. Besides, the worst that will happen was that Dagur would go to sleep instead of just being out of it, and the less time he was awake in a crowded place the better.

 

"We will be soon, but you and me need to have a talk."

 

"In a minute? I'm a little busy with--" Hiccup yelped as he was hooked again as he tried to walk away, and frowned as Gobber set him back down.

 

"Trust me, ye'll like having this conversation with me a lot more than if you wait to have it with your father. It's about--"

 

"Dagur," Hiccup answered dully.

 

"--Dagur," Gobber finished, then huffed at Hiccup for cutting in, and he bopped the boy on the top of his head with his hook.

 

"Oww," Hiccup grumbled and rubbed the top of his head with his free hand. "Oh come on, like I'm not supposed to know that? It's all anyone talks to me about anymore."

 

"That's because you've gotten too attached Mr. Deranged the past few weeks," Gobber said it sternly, but then sighed and sat down at the table Hiccup had just been making tea at and patted the bench beside him. Hiccup moved to sit beside him after a moment.

 

"He wants to belong," Hiccup said defensively.

 

"No, he wants _you_."

 

Hiccup tensed at that and held the tea a little harder in his lap, looking down at the steeping leaves.

 

"Ye haven't been as secretive as ye thought ye were," Gobber said, and his tone was gentle even if Hiccup was wincing like he had just been yelled at.

 

"Does my dad know about it?" Hiccup asked. He looked up and glanced around, and even if everyone was more interested in getting food or finding a place to eat at he still felt like everyone was listening to him and Gobber.

 

"Aye. Your father knows a lot about you, Hiccup, there's not much anyone can hide from him."

 

Hiccup winced and turned the mug in his hands. He was half tempted to drink the tea himself now, because being out of his mind or sleeping seemed like a far better thing than having to have this conversation.

 

"Is he mad at me?" Hiccup asked tentatively.

 

"He's... yes. Although 'frustrated' might be a better word. You haven't been the one listening to him going on about 'If he likes his own as well then why not Fishlegs, they get along so well.'"

 

Hiccup couldn't help the small smile and laugh at that. It was... not great, but it was a relief to know that Stoick was more concerned with Hiccup's apparently poor choice in boyfriends than in the fact he wanted a boyfriend at all. Sometimes his dad was surprisingly compassionate about things, and it honestly seemed like compassion was something Stoick was getting better at the longer dragons lived on Berk. It was a gentle reminder that the Berk chief was wrong once about something big, and Stoick's kept a slightly more open mind about things since then. _Slightly_.

 

"I guess it kinda helps you're his best friend," Hiccup said, finally looking up at Gobber. "But he's going to try to get rid of Dagur anyway, huh?"

 

"Yep. There's been some rumor going around the twins have been spreading that Thor wants Dagur to stay on Berk," Gobber waved his hook toward the slightly dwindled crowd. "But even if Odin himself came down from Asgard and told Stoick that demand your father would still try to argue over it."

 

Hiccup smiled again at that. It was true, nothing short of a miracle would convince Stoick that Dagur should stay, and Hiccup knew it. At least there was the slight comfort in knowing Dagur's plan had worked, people were thinking he was supposed to stay here.

 

"So ye might want to say your goodbyes now," Gobber continued. "Johann's boat still needs repairs, but provided it survives the storm the Berserker ship won't, and if they can leave Stoick will find some way to get Dagur on that ship so he'll be leaving with them."

 

"...Was my dad going to tell me his plan?" Hiccup asked as he looked back to the mug.

 

"No. And don't you tell him I told you, alright?"

 

Hiccup nodded and moved to get up from the bench. He wasn't surprised, but again he had the urge to drink the tea himself and not have to deal with anything.

 

\- - -

 

Dagur was still stewing in his own miserable mood by the time Hiccup came back to him. The bigger boy looked up, half glaring, but he lost what little anger was directed at Hiccup when he saw how he looked, "You really are sick, aren't you?"

 

Hiccup just sat down beside him and put the mug in Dagur's good hand, "Drink this."

 

"Why?" Dagur looked down at the mug of tea, then back to Hiccup. As far as he knew Hiccup should have gotten something for himself, not for him.

 

"Just drink it for me, alright?" Hiccup sided and leaned against Dagur's shoulder, careful since he was tucking up against Dagur's injured side.

 

"What happened to 'not in front of other people'?" Dagur smirked at him. Hiccup shifted to tucked close against him and put his arm around Dagur's back.

 

"I don't really care about other people right now," Hiccup said. It was hard to care when he just found out that everyone already knew about the two of them. Dagur lost his smirk at Hiccup's sudden physical affection and he leaned in to nuzzle into Hiccup's dark hair. The smaller boy nudged into it lightly, and Dagur pulled back to take a deep swig from the mug.


	31. Chapter 31

Hiccup had picked right, Dagur drank down the tea and had started dozing off against Hiccup's shoulder almost as soon as he was done. Hiccup knew it didn't have any real impact on it, but it seemed like as soon as Dagur was snoring the rest of the vikings in the hall settled down some. It was relatively normal, everyone on Berk would complain and argue and fight about being trapped in one place, but when night was settled over them and the howling of the wind drowned out any other sounds that might be outside everyone seemed to accept their temporary fate. It helped that Stoick had finally come in, soaked with rainwater, and he sent off a few men on small errands around the hall before he went to speak with Gothi.

 

"This isn't a normal storm," Stoick said low to the medicine woman. Gothi nodded. Something was different, the wind was coming from the wrong direction, the air had been warmer and wetter than usual. There was no snow. The rain constantly drumming on the ceiling changed tone slowly. From the constant roar of water there came little _thunks_ now and then, gradually growing in number and sound.

 

"Will Berk be alright?" Stoick asked. There was a pause, and he sighed before he added quietly, "Does this mean anything?"

 

Gothi frowned as she looked over the people who, at this point in the night, were trying to find relatively comfortable places to settle in and sleep. She brought her staff down firmly, the bottom of the wood hitting the ground with a dull thud and the decorations of spines and fangs at the top of it clattered. It was barely able to be heard over the sound of the storm roaring outside, but everyone on Berk knew the noise and those who were awake looked up to it. Gothi pointed with the end of her staff, and Stoick's gaze followed. He frowned when he saw the berserker and his son, and even if he knew it was irrational he would have taken the chance to blame to the sleeping intruder.

 

Dagur wasn't the one Gothi had motioned to, though. And it wasn't to Hiccup. Slowly, almost too slowly to be alive and healthy, the girl with them rose up on unsteady feet with her wingbone staff and came to them. Gothi changed her staff to her other hand and motioned for the other shaman to join her and Stoick.

 

"Do you really need her help?" Stoick asked gruffly. He didn't bother to lighten his tone even as the berserker came towards them. He looked down to Gothi again and the elder gave him a long-suffering look before waving her hand like she meant to shoo away the chief. Stoick bristled and decided he was going to stay if only out of spite.

 

\- - -

 

Hiccup squirmed and wriggled a little to get Dagur off of him and onto the bundle of bedding Nott still hadn't unrolled. He was just putting up with the fact his whole leg was going asleep before, but now that Nott was up and doing something--something with Gothi--he wanted to stretch and see what was happening. He wasn't the only one, there were a few curious people coming over to investigate when Nott had joined Gothi, and from where he was Hiccup could see that Astrid was one of them. He couldn't see much else, the fire in the pit in the center of the hall only offered so much light, and it was allowed to die back to a smaller glow when most of the people on Berk were supposed to be sleeping.

 

"What're you doing?"

 

Hiccup turned to look at Dagur where he had gotten him, and the older boy was slumped like he was still asleep, but his eyes were open now. "Hey, you're awake."

 

"Yeah," Dagur moved slowly to sit up properly, or at least as properly as he could manage like this. "You drugged me..."

 

"...Yeah," Hiccup didn't really feel up to lying or making up excuses right now. He was tired, and not just because it was late. "Mad?"

 

"Not right now," Dagur looked up to where Nott was, but in a moment there was someone standing between them and he looked back to Hiccup. "What's going on?"

 

"I'm not sure, Gothi just wanted your sister for something," Hiccup said. He sighed and settled back down since there didn't seem to be a place he could force through the crowd anymore. "Is it going to be something bad?"

 

"Might be," Dagur slurred a little, he closed his eyes again with a sigh. "There's not going to be anything interesting for a bit, just wait until they're finished."

 

Hiccup looked over to him, and he almost wanted to argue. But, annoyingly, Dagur was right, it might take a while for them to determine anything, if there was anything at all. Dagur shifted and reached up to take off his helmet to set it aside, and in a few minutes he was slumped on the bedroll and asleep again.

 

\- - -

 

Most people didn't have the experience with Nott that Dagur had and they stood around waiting for the young shaman to do something interesting. She didn't. For hours she didn't, Nott murmured to Gothi when she felt the need to talk, but those needs were few and far between. Slowly people lost interest and abandoned them when whatever interest they had in watching the women waned and left. There were a few interesting parts, when Gothi tossed a bone into the fire pit and Nott took a handful of dried plants to throw on top of it. The fire rose to greet it's food and sent sparks up into the air, but after that they simply waited for the bone to burn and dragged it out of the fire to inspect the scorch marks and cracks the heat left there. Eventually even Astrid lost interest--or she simply accepted that she was falling asleep on her feet--and left to go back to her family and sleep.

 

Stoick watched her go and sighed as he reached up to rub over his face and eyes. He was tired too, but he wanted answers more than anything else. It felt as though they would come easier if he stayed close to Gothi and Nott, and he didn't feel like questioning that feeling right now. He looked down when there was a hand on his arm, and Gothi's smiled gently at him.

 

"You should sleep," Nott muttered. What gentleness and kindness Gothi was willing to offer to Stoick Nott was either unable or uninterested to.

 

"I won't sleep until I have my answer."

 

"Your answer is that this is a storm," Nott said. She tilted her head and grabbed a handful of twigs, and after a brief squeeze to break a few of them in her fist she tossed them into the fire and watched them. It took Stoick a moment to realize that the twigs weren't twigs, that they were small rib bones to some little animal. "Berk has survived storms before, though not like this."

 

"Will anyone be hurt?"

 

"Yes," Nott said and tilted her head as one of the ribs popped and cracked. "But it will not be a human."

 

Gothi tapped her staff against the floor and Nott looked to her. There was a moment when they just watched one another, but Nott nodded her head and looked down as she continued, "Things will change, broken things will be repaired. Berk will be stronger after the storm clears, and when everything on the island is whole then only what belongs on Berk will be here."

 

Stoick relaxed like a great weight was taken off of his shoulders. He looked to Gothi, almost not able to believe it, but the elder nodded and he managed to smile. He was more than happy to see his problems gone, and now it felt as though the storm was here to wash away anything that wasn't supposed to be on Berk anymore. Stoick thanked them both and went to go fetch Hiccup so he and his son could get some rest, glad to not have to worry about watching over others for a few hours.

 

\- - -

 

Nott and Gothi watched the chief leave together and at the same time they looked away from him. Nott looked down to her charred rib bones and Gothi looked to Nott. After a moment the old woman came closer to rest her hand on Nott's back and Nott nodded slowly.

 

"I know," she whispered. If anyone was still around this would have been the only part of interest. "You're right. But it still feels like lying, to only tell him what he wants to hear..."

 

Gothi sighed and nodded as she placed her hands on her staff again. She had known Stoick for years and years, though. She had seen him even as a child, and while he was a great man now there were times where she had to treat him like a child. Only tell him the good things that will come, don't tell him the steps that must be taken to reach that goal.

 

The will of the gods will persevere, even in spite of Stoick the Vast.


	32. Chapter 32

For Hiccup the night was peppered with moments of rest between being woken up by someone's horrid snoring--Snotlout's dad--or something clattering--Johann's wares being knocked over by the trader rolling over in his sleep--or talking and sniggering--the twins, who had been planning something awful. Hiccup didn't sleep well in the great hall usually, and even Stoick being more calm when he came to collect him didn't help much. The wind roared outside too loud most of the time, and with so many people around it was uncomfortable at best. Hiccup felt like he was the only one with this problem, but if he actually asked around he'd have found out that most people felt the same. When he finally settled in and managed to doze off it felt like it was only a few minutes before there was a hand on his shoulder shaking him awake.

 

"Few more minutes..." Hiccup mumbled and swatted away the hand as he buried his face into the fur he was sleeping on.

 

"Wake up. Do you hear that?"

 

Hiccup frowned and raised his head at that. He had thought it was his dad, or maybe someone trying to get him to help with breakfast. It wasn't, it was Dagur crouched near him and looking around. Hiccup wasn't sure what he was looking for at first, but then it dawned on him that Dagur wasn't looking at anything, he was tilting his head and focusing to listen for something outside of the great hall's walls.

 

"I don't hear anything..." Hiccup mumbled as he pushed himself to sit up. As soon as he did he regretted it. Nobody else was up, in fact it looked like everyone had finally all fallen asleep. It was dark, there were just a few live coals still in the fire pit giving off a faint glow, although there was a dull, gray light coming from under the hall doors.

 

"Wait for it," Dagur muttered. Hiccup grumbled and rubbed over his eyes, and despite himself he was waking up. It might have actually been morning, or at least long enough for Dagur to sleep off the tea.

 

"Why are you up?" Hiccup mumbled. He didn't mean to sound so accusatory, but he was curious since if anything Dagur should have been the last one awake.

 

"Pretty sure I'm the only one that slept through the night..." Dagur muttered. He was being quiet, and Hiccup had to lean in a little closer to hear him well. Hiccup listened for a minute, then looked up to the roof when he realized exactly how quiet it was.

 

"Did the storm stop?"

 

There was barely a pause between the end of his question when there was a faint sound. It was an awful sound that reminded him of metal scraping against metal wrong, but it was faint and far off. The sound hitched higher for a moment in the middle--obviously not metal--and then faded away. Hiccup knew that had to have been what Dagur woke him up to hear, and he was able to place the sound even with how far away it had to have been.

 

"That was a dragon," Hiccup whispered. He was up in the next moment with Dagur behind him, and Hiccup was glad for the help when they had to unbar the main entrance to get out. Once outside Hiccup and Dagur were looking around, confused and uneasy. The storm seemed to be gone, the rain had stopped, but the sky was giving off the dull gray glow like the sun was up behind thick clouds. If the storm was gone the sky should have cleared at least a little. It wasn't worth the time to think about it to Dagur, however, and he put his hand on Hiccup's back to push him along.

 

"Come on," Dagur said as he dragged Hiccup with. When Hiccup realized he was being lead to the academy he picked up his pace and the two of them hurried to check on the dragons there.

 

\- - -

 

There was a pool of water in the academy a few inches deep thanks to the sloped entranceway and the sunken-down design of the arena. Hiccup frowned at it and he was already thinking of how he'd have to get it all out of there, but Dagur was walking through it and going to the doors of the pens. He went to Barf and Belch's first, the Zippleback had gotten used to the berserker and the two heads came over to nose at the grate and to coo and click at him. Dagur looked over them before moving over to look at Meatlug. The Gronkle was more wary thanks in part to Fishleg's lingering mistrust of Dagur and she kept to the back of her pen.

 

"They look fine. Wet, but fine," Dagur said, and he sounded annoyed about that.

 

"It might have been a stray dragon," Hiccup said as he looked over Hookfang who had eaten through his entire supply of fish and was nosing in the crate for more. He moved to Toothless and reached in to stroke over the Night Fury's smooth, scaly nose. In each of the five pens there were at least a half-dozen Terrible Terrors each. People who kept them had to have somewhere to put them during times like this, and with a natural caring instinct it seemed the best idea to have the little dragons stay with the big ones. Sharing Toothless' pen were Sharpshot and Trapjaw, along with Gothi's Terrors. Toothless had the most out of any of the other dragons, and there were three of them huddled under his belly making the black dragon stand up higher than he usually did so he wouldn't squish them down into the water.

 

"Hey, bud. You weren't the one screaming, right?" Hiccup asked. The Night Fury made a low, questioning sound before he perked his head up sharply. He twitched a little, the fins on his head flipping up and moving, he was listening to something. Almost immediately there was the scream from before. It was closer this time, and Hiccup and Dagur both looked towards it. When the scream faded off Stormfly pressed against the grate to her pen and screamed back as loud as he could. It made the viking and berserker both wince when the Nadder squawked, but she didn't hold out the sound as long as the other dragon did. There was a slight pause and then the scream came back to call back to the dragon that answered.

 

"How far away do you think it is?" Dagur asked before Stormfly had the chance to screech again.

 

"I don't know," Hiccup said after Stormfly finished calling to the other dragon once more. "It's coming here, though."

 

"Not fast enough," Dagur growled low. He looked around to the water, and Hiccup looked with him. There were tiny splashes hopping up, rain was starting to fall again and they'd have to hurry to get out of there and back to the great hall. Hiccup felt bad about it, he considered taking Toothless out and finding the dragon, but when he looked back to Toothless he knew he couldn't do that. There were Terrors huddled up close to the Night Fury, and Toothless had lowered a wing to give the little dragons a bit more security. Without Toothless the Terrors would be even more scared, and there was no guarantee Hiccup would be able to get his friend back to the safety of his pen.

 

"You be safe here, alright? Take care of them," Hiccup said as he rubbed over Toothless' head again before he started out of the partially flooded academy. As the boys left Stormfly screamed to the unknown dragon again, and it made Hiccup feel all the worse that the Nadder was trying to help as well as she could but he wasn't going to. But he couldn't, unless he knew exactly where the dragon was and that there might be shelter nearby.

 

The lost dragon's scream came back to them. It sounded like it had stopped coming closer and wherever it was that was where it was staying. The scream kept on longer than it had before, and this time something was different. There was a sudden bright light that danced and sparked in the wilderness, and the boom of thunder roared around them. Dagur and Hiccup both froze and listened to the fading scream and the dying thunder. As soon as it was quiet Hiccup opened his mouth, but it didn't matter. Dagur was already running as fast as he was able to towards it.

 

\- - -

 

The forest was in worse shape than the village had been. When Hiccup and Dagur had been running by the huts there were scattered boards that had been ripped off of the doors--and a ripped off door--but the trees in the wilderness looked like they had been smashed. Not all of them, some of the sturdier ones had just lost branches, but that didn't stop the forest floor from being a tangle of broken, wet wood and foliage. As Hiccup slipped over rain-slicked leaves he couldn't help but be reminded of trying to traverse on the seaweed covered back of the Sealand. He wished he really had taken Toothless out of his pen, at least in the air he'd be faster than he was tripping and slipping like this, but the rain had picked up and was already hitting Hiccup and what branches and leaves still remained on the standing trees. It would just be a matter of time before the storm was back to how bad it had been before.

 

"Dagur!" Hiccup yelled and looked around. He took a deep breath and tried to yell louder for the other boy. To his surprise the dragon trapped in the woods screamed again. It was louder this time, they really had gotten a lot closer, and now Hiccup could definitely hear what Dagur must have heard in the great hall to wake him up.

 

There was a sudden call from closer to his right than Hiccup would have liked. It wasn't a Nadder's screech, it was a Monstrous Nightmare's roar, and if there was one thing Hiccup didn't want to have to deal with it was the fiery temper of an angry Nightmare. He started trying to continue on, taking care not to run, but it wasn't any good. There was a rustle in the fallen leaves and branches as the dragon came closer to him, and when Hiccup turned to look at it he lost his footing and fell. He cried out when he landed hard on a jagged piece of wood from a fallen branch, and winced as he heard the Nightmare hurry toward him. The dragon moved over him and Hiccup was too winded and aching too badly, he closed his eyes and waited for fire...

 

That never came. Hiccup opened his eyes carefully to look at the Nightmare. It was still there and it was just looking at him, and when he was finally looking back at it the dragon leaned in to nudge his nose against Hiccup's chest. Hiccup reached up to rub over the Nightmare's chin and he finally got a good look at it. He sighed in relief when he recognized the purple and orange coloring and rubbed over the dragon's nose.

 

"Hey, Fanghook. You scared me halfway to Hel, you know that?" Hiccup eased up from where he had fallen and winced when his side flared in pain. He moved to touch through his tunic carefully under his vest. He couldn't tell if he was bleeding just from touch, he was soaked at this point, but when took his hand back there wasn't any sign of red on his fingers or hand. He was just bruised, hopefully. There was another loud sound, Hiccup hesitated to call it a scream since it sounded more pitiful this time, and Fanghook roared again before starting towards it. Hiccup had to hurry and jump onto the dragon's back to hitch a ride. It made his bruise ache all the worse as Hiccup hung around Fanghook's neck and hooked a leg over the large spines over the dragon's back. He wished he was riding a dragon that at least ran without moving so much. 

 

On Fanghook's back the trip was much faster. They came through a tangle of tipped-over trees and to the relatively clear area. It wasn't always clear, the trees Fanghook had just crawled over used to be standing, but a larger tree had been knocked over and the wind had pushed it until it nearly leveled the ground for a ways. Hiccup looked over the wreckage, and there half laying on a cluster of wet, fallen trees was a dragon. It wasn't just any dragon, either. It was a Skrill.


	33. Chapter 33

The sight made Hiccup wince. The dragon was beautiful and pitiful, it was shiny black like the other Skrill he had seen, but instead of the glittering iridescence being purple like the one before this one was shimmering blue in the dull light from the murky gray sky. The dark wings were badly damaged, instead of the membrane being solid there were rough ragged holes torn through the delicate skin. In more than a couple places there were even small sticks and branches punctured through the black skin. The Skrill was eyeing Hiccup and Fanghook, and it twitched it's wings as Fanghook tried to come closer.

 

"Don't," there was a low growl beside Hiccup and he looked towards it. Dagur had made it there first, he was crouched low to the ground and he looked too much like he was hunting. "She's hurt."

 

"I can _see_ that," Hiccup hissed at him in a whisper as he climbed off of Fanghook's back. The Skrill watched him with interest and Hiccup frowned. "Wait, she?"

 

"Tail's shorter," Dagur said, and that was all the explanation he gave as he started to move closer to the dragon. The Skrill screeched at him, that same pitiful sound Hiccup had heard before, and she sparked in the rain but that was it.

 

"I think she used most of her stored lightning with that last bolt," Dagur halted when the Skrill screamed at him. He moved to kneel down and took off his helmet, then started unbuckling and shrugging off the rest of his metal armor, putting what he could in the helmet and handing it up to Hiccup before he started moving closer.

 

"Or the rain's doing something to it," Hiccup said as he took the helmet. He looked to the Skrill who had started to walk backwards away from Dagur and his eyes went wide. "Dagur, don't!"

 

"What?" Dagur growled and looked back to him. Hiccup moved slowly to join Dagur and Fanghook followed behind Hiccup curiously.

 

"Look at her wing," Hiccup said as quietly as he could above the rain, trying not to sound too worried so he wouldn't scare the Skrill anymore than she already was. Hiccup nodded towards where one of the branches was jutting up through her wing. It wasn't just through her wing, it was still attached to the tree she was standing on. It was too high up for her to easily raise her wing up over it, she likely had a crash landing that ended up with her wing being pierced. "If she keeps moving she's going to rip her wing entirely."

 

"Then what are we going to--stop that!" Dagur hissed sharply when Fanghook nudged and nosed against his shoulder. Dagur backed away from the Nightmare, but Fanghook bumped his nose against Dagur's cheek roughly and nearly knocked the berserker over on the slick ground. Hiccup reached up to pull Fanghook back, then stopped.

 

"No, wait, this is good," Hiccup said. He held Fanghook still and grabbed Dagur's hand to make him pet the Nightmare. "Let her see that other dragons like you, then she might trust you."

 

Dagur frowned and looked to the Skrill, then back to Fanghook to stroke over his snout. It didn't have anything to do with Fanghook actually liking Dagur, but after drinking dragon nip tea Dagur gave off a smell that made dragons act like they did. It had made Trapjaw more pleasant, and it made Fanghook nudge and bump his nose against the berserker with a happy growl despite having had to fight against him before. The Skrill tilted her head and took a careful step forward so her wing membrane wasn't pulling as bad on the jutting branch any longer.

 

"I think you might be able to get closer to her now," Hiccup said as he watched the Skrill. He let go of Fanghook and reached into his vest to pull out the packet of dried dragon nip--although with how soaked the parchment the herbs were wrapped in was the plant definitely wasn't dry any longer. "And this will help when you get close enough."

 

Dagur took it and opened it to sniff the contents. As soon as he did Dagur knew what it was and Hiccup couldn't help but feel guilty when the berserker muttered, "I wondered what you drugged me with."

 

The older boy didn't bother holding a grudge just then, he just started slowly creeping closer to the Skrill. She was obviously nervous but she wasn't trying to run away anymore and Dagur was able to get close enough to her to open up the dragon nip packet and take out a handful of the damp, brittle plant. It was ground up and Hiccup worried that the rain was going to wash it away.

 

"Hey there, girl," Dagur said low as he came closer. He crouched down until he was closer to eye-level with the dragon. The Skrill wasn't particularly small, it looked just a little smaller than the one Dagur had handled before so either female Skrill were simply smaller or she was a sub-adult, but Skrill kept low to the ground naturally and she seemed to be trying to hunker down farther out of nervousness. Dagur held out his hand and the Skrill hesitated, but eventually she nosed at his hand and sniffed at what had become dragon nip mush. She licked at it once, then nudged closer to lick it up and out of his palm.

 

Hiccup let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding and he set Dagur's helmet down so he could come closer slowly and inspect the Skrill's wing while Dagur kept her busy. Getting her to raise her wing above the branch wasn't a possibility, it was too high up and it wasn't like she'd be able to fly up there. He came closer to look over the broken branch under her wing carefully and jerked a little when the Skrill suddenly moved.

 

"No, no," Dagur moved closer to put his hand under the Skrill's chin carefully, rubbing slowly the way Hiccup had shown him on other dragons. The Skrill made a sound and looked back to Dagur. Even though her pupils were dilated from the nip she still narrowed her eyes suspiciously.

 

"I know, baby. I know you're worried about what he's doing," Dagur said, and the Skrill moved to put her attention on him instead. Hiccup was impressed, he hadn't thought Dagur might have the capacity for compassion to be able to care for something like this. Dagur slid his hand under the Skrill's chin and eased beside her neck slowly, so he could block Hiccup from her sight and keep from touching her too close to her eyes, "There's a knife in my boot if you need to cut it."

 

Dagur had said it in the same quiet tone that he had been talking to the Skrill in that Hiccup hadn't realized the berserker was talking to him instead. He looked over the branch and frowned. It wasn't ideal, the rain was bad, and he didn't want to be out of here much longer, but he couldn't leave the dragon injured and alone like this. Hiccup got the knife out of Dagur's boot--thankfully he didn't have to ask which side, with his right arm mostly useless Dagur would only be keeping a weapon in his left one--and Hiccup started sawing at the wood above the Skrill's punctured wing. It felt like he wasn't doing anything but leaving a few gashes in the bark and Hiccup nearly gave up right before Fanghook came closer to him. The Nightmare watched him trying to cut through the branch and nudged Hiccup out of the way so he could bite down on the wood. Hiccup almost pushed him away, breaking it risked hurting the Skrill worse, but Fanghook didn't break it. Instead he bore his teeth down into the wood and there was a glow between the branch and his teeth as he burned the wet wood. If it had been dry it would have gone faster, but it was still faster for a dragon to burn through the branch than for Hiccup to cut through it. After a long minute the branch finally cracked and creaked and the scorched and smoldering wood in Fanghook's mouth gave up. The branch started to fall and the Nightmare twisted his head to pull it off entirely and toss it away. Hiccup sighed in relief and rubbed over Fanghook's nose as he praised the young dragon. The Skrill shifted and moved her wing up when the branch crashed through the underbrush--and in the process she scraped her injured membrane against the embers of the branch that hadn't entirely been put out in the rain yet. She screamed loud and sparks danced along her wet body. Hiccup jumped back from it and Fanghook raised up a little, but Dagur stayed close. He kept his hand on the injured dragon and Hiccup could see the electricity arch from the Skrill to the berserker. It only lasted a moment, her reaction to pain, but when it was over Dagur slumped and panted roughly.

 

"Dagur," Hiccup knelt beside him and grabbed his shoulder. He expected him to be unconscious after that, or worse, but the other boy gave him a weak, pained grin. Hiccup sighed and leaned in to nudge his forehead against Dagur's, just glad he was alright, and barely noticing that the Skrill was on Dagur's other side and nosing at the berserker curiously. "We need to find somewhere to take shelter, there's no way we can make it back in time."

 

Almost as soon as Hiccup had said it Fanghook was walking over the fallen trees and back the way he'd come. The Monstrous Nightmare paused to look back and the Skrill started limping after him slowly. Fanghook was leading the other dragon back to wherever he had been and he waited until the Skrill was behind him, and he walked slowly to match her injured pace. Hiccup got Dagur's helmet and armor pieces he had been given and helped the bigger boy get up so they could follow after the dragons.


	34. Chapter 34

Hiccup hadn't held out much hope for wherever Fanghook had been hiding to be particularly pleasant. He hadn't counted on Gustav coming by to make sure his dragon had food and comforts to keep him occupied, though. There was a bin that Hiccup guessed had earlier held as many fish as Gustav could carry, but all that was left now were a few scales in the bottom edges. There were a few fur pelts that had gotten soaked where they had been too close to the opening of the cave, and one was badly singed on a corner with all of the fur curled and stinking there. It wasn't a big cave for a dragon, which was probably why Fanghook had been in it alone, and it didn't really seem like it could hold two dragons and two people. It would have to, though, since the rain was back to full force and the wind was whipping through the trees again. Hiccup and Dagur had to stay somewhere relatively safe and Hiccup was sure they wouldn't be able to get back to the great hall like this. The Skrill went into the cave first, waddling to the back of it and curling up loosely with a whine. After her Fanghook tried to follow, but Hiccup pulled Dagur along and they ducked into the cave before the Nightmare. Fanghook made a loud, cranky sound, but he trudged in last and put his back and wings to the opening of the cave. As much as the juvenile Monsterous Nightmare didn't like it he'd have to be the one to block the worst of the storm. Hiccup and Dagur were too small, and the Skrill was too injured.

 

Fanghook blocked out most of what light remained outside with his size, but there was just enough to see by once Hiccup and Dagur's eyes adjusted. The Skrill was pressed to the ground, her tattered wings close to herself, and she was watching the two boys carefully. She wasn't as aggressive as the last Skrill Hiccup had dealt with. If that dragon had been trapped like this one had been it would have just torn it's wing getting out, and then attacked them both. Hiccup scooted closer to her and reached to touch her slowly. It was weird since his first instinct was to touch her nose and she flinched away from that, but he moved his hand and touched under her chin gently instead of touching too close to her eyes and the Skrill relaxed a little.

 

"This is weird..." Hiccup muttered as he kept touching the dragon, petting her and getting her calm and used to friendly people. "Do you think she might have been blown in with the storm?"

 

He turned to look at Dagur as he moved closer too, but the bigger boy was inspecting her wings instead of her face, and he started to carefully pull what twigs and branches were stuck in the sensitive membrane. The Skrill twitched and jerked back from Hiccup's hand--and in a moment he was glad for the lack of contact when her wings suddenly gave off a brilliant light. Electricity arched between the skin where it was torn and punctured, and for a moment it looked like the wings were whole again with the ruined skin patched together with light. It didn't last long, and when it did finish Hiccup couldn't see in the dark easily thanks to the sudden display of lightning.

 

"Did you really have to do that..." Hiccup grumbled as he rubbed over his eyes. The flares had burned themselves into his sight for the moment, like floating wisps of purple, and even closing his eyes didn't get rid of them.

 

"Could have been worse," Dagur mumbled, and his voice sounded hoarse. Hiccup winced, thankfully unseen, as he remembered that Dagur hadn't taken his hand off of the Skrill last time she sparked.

 

"Do you think she blew in from Berserk?" Hiccup asked, hoping to change the subject.

 

"No..." Hiccup heard a shuffling scrape and then there was a touch on his arm as Dagur found him. "If there were still Skrill there I would already have one... so would Bola, probably."

 

"That makes sense..." Hiccup squinted in the dark, and he was able to make out Dagur a little easier now, even with the annoying blobs still there in his sight. "She needs a name."

 

"Why?"

 

"Because that's what you do with dragons. It lets them know when you're addressing them once they learn their name," Hiccup reached out in the dark, and he was met with a sharp screech. He paused, put his hand lower, and tried again, and this time he touched under her chin without getting fussed at. Apparently even though the light ruined his night vision it didn't do the same to her.

 

"How about Death?" Dagur said, and Hiccup could hear the grin in his voice.

 

"How about no. She needs something a little more... positive. Something more her."

 

"Lightning Death."

 

"I have no idea how that's supposed to be positive," Hiccup grumbled as he rubbed under her chin again. The Skrill nudged into his fingers and he smiled as he felt the small rumbling start of a purr from in her throat. There was a long pause, Hiccup just rubbing under the Skrill's chin and coaxing the happy sound from her, before Dagur spoke again.

 

"What about Lightwing?"

 

"That's... actually not that bad," Hiccup smiled a little and looked to where he assumed the Skrill's head was. "Do you like it? Lightwing?"

 

The Skrill made a noise and as it filtered through the weak purr it had a pleasant and affirmative tone to it.

 

"I think she likes it," Hiccup smiled, and he turned a little to squint at what he assumed was Dagur. "How'd you think of it?"

 

"Her wings lit up when she freaked out before," Dagur said. After a moment, as if he realized that Hiccup was burying his face in his hand at how Dagur had completely missed the point of a _positive_ name, he added, "And it sounds like 'lightning'."

 

"Well..." Hiccup sighed and stroked under her chin one more time before he let Lightwing settle down on the cave floor. "I've heard people name their dragons worse things."

 

It took Hiccup a moment to realize what he said, and he buried his face in his hand again. He wasn't dumb enough to hope that maybe Dagur had missed that Hiccup had essentially said that the Skrill was his.

 

\- - -

 

It had taken a while--longer than anyone would like to admit--for someone to notice that Hiccup was missing from the great hall. Stoick especially was angry with himself, he had assumed that when he woke and his son wasn't nearby that he had gone off to talk with his friends, get food, or--annoyingly--went to see the berserkers over in their corner of the hall. But none of his friends had seen Hiccup, and when Stoick finally went to where Berk's visitors were settled only the shaman was there, sleeping with her cheek resting against the bone staff. Stoick shook her awake roughly, and the girl winced and looked at him with narrowed eyes, but didn't say anything.

 

"Where is my son?" Stoick barked it out roughly, an accusation even though he had just woke her up. "Where is Hiccup?"

 

Nott looked away from him and looked slowly around the room. Stoick nearly yelled at her that if he hadn't found his son just by looking then she wouldn't either, but before he got the chance she had raised her staff and pointed behind Stoick. There was a moment of relief, and he turned expecting to see his son, but Hiccup wasn't there. No, what was there were the doors to the hall, closed but with the barricade down. He turned back to her, torn between anger and fear, but Nott didn't seem to notice the emotions.

 

"He will not be back until the storm has fully passed," she muttered as she looked at the door, then slowly back up to Stoick. "The door will need to be shut properly again..."

 

\- - -

 

Stoick didn't take Nott's advice until he absolutely had to. When he first started out into the storm the rain was falling down in sheets, but the worst of the wind was coming from behind the great hall and so it was neither blowing the doors open nor forcing rain in. Stoick couldn't leave his people alone, although he had been greatly tempted to. It wasn't long until he was forced to have the doors barred again. The wind that had been only coming from behind now seemed to be blowing from all directions, and more than once someone had lost their grip on holding the doors closed before the wood was put back in place. The wind and rain that had come inside was strong enough to blow over a few of the people in its path and to soak everyone too close to the doors at the time.

 

Hours later found Astrid pacing as well as she could as she walked around people and over belongings. She was worried too, even after Stoick had reassured them that Gothi's predictions--with the old woman nodding beside him--were for the whole village to be safe. He had left out Nott's involvement with the prediction. Even after most of the people in the hall had watched the berserker and Gothi together the night before no one bothered to ask for Nott's opinion on it. Astrid turned and walked by Johann's wares as she started to head toward Nott. Maybe she should ask about it herself...

 

There was a tug on her pauldron and Astrid stopped to glance over her shoulder. She glared at Heather, who still looked too comfortable sitting amongst the trader's things, and this time wrapped in a brightly colored and striped fur.

 

"What is it now?"

 

"I just wanted to give you something," Heather hopped off of the crate she had been perched on and lead Astrid away, her hand still on the other girl's shoulder. When they were far enough Heather took her hand back and reached into her cloak, pulling out bundle and handing it to Astrid. The blonde girl took it with a grimace, but lost the foul look when she opened it and her own throwing knives were staring back at her. She had traded them away to Johann for Hiccup's gift, and while she didn't like the prospect of losing them she had known he was going to love the book.

 

"Did you steal these?" Astrid asked as she rolled them back up with a frown.

 

"No. Johann said that I've been doing such a good job helping him guard his things that I could pick a reward. I recognized these," Heather smiled. "And he likes taking about where he got things from, so I knew they were yours."

 

"You probably got the reward for listening to his stories, not for guarding anything," Astrid grumbled, but she wasn't going to refuse her knives. "Was there anything else you wanted?"

 

"Oh, lots of things," Heather laughed, and Astrid stifled the urge to smile a little at that. "But right now I just want you happy."

 

"Why?" Astrid eyed the other girl warily. She was still upset in some ways about being tricked, mostly because she had been the only one who was _right_ about almost everything about Heather before. She had seen her sneaking around, had distrusted the lies she had said, and if it hadn't been for the fake parents she would have never doubted herself.

 

"Because I want to be your friend," Heather said sweetly. And, after a moment of Astrid looking at her like she was an idiot, there was an ever-so-slight change to her tone. "If not a friend, then an ally. You're strong, and you're smarter than most. I don't want to be your enemy again."

 

"Then maybe you shouldn't do things that make me want to hit you," Astrid said stiffly. She thought a moment, then turned to her, "Is this why you wanted me to help Dagur? It gave you a chance to be around me more?"

 

Heather was quiet, and while she kept the same pleasant face she held the fur tighter around herself. Astrid had been right about that.

 

"Why don't you just tell me exactly what you want? Instead of running around like you've been doing?" Astrid glared, and Heather shifted back a little from her. She looked down to the fur and played with it a moment, not quite able to look back up to Astrid.

 

"Right. So until you figure out how to be honest, I'm going to go talk to your sister," Astrid said as she went back to heading towards Nott. She was still planning on asking about Hiccup, but now she was thinking about adding "Why are your siblings so messed up?" to her list of questions.


	35. Chapter 35

"Here," Astrid said, rougher than she meant to, as she handed Nott her drink. The berserker hadn't answered any questions when Astrid asked them, she only kept saying she was thirsty but made no move to get up. Astrid was hoping that by fixing Nott's one insistent complaint that she could get an answer out of her. Nott looked at the mug for a while before she finally reached to take it, drinking slowly from it.

 

"Now, are you going to tell me about Hiccup?" Astrid sat down on the floor a bit away from where Nott was settled, watching her as she finished off her drink.

 

"I do not know him very well..." Nott drawled slowly as she set the mug down beside her. "I would think you would know him better."

 

Astrid growled and rubbed the bridge of her nose, " _No_. I mean where he _is_. You told Stoick he was outside. Do you know where?"

 

Nott was quiet for a bit and moved her staff in her hands. She was playing with the teeth and was looked like locks of hair that had been added to the mass of creepy trinkets tied to the long bone, "I assume he went out."

 

"What?" Astrid frowned. She had almost missed it with how quietly Nott was talking. "You _assumed_?"

 

"The door was open," Nott sighed, and dropped the fang she was holding between her fingers to let it click against the others and the staff. "Hiccup is missing, so is Dagur. My brother does not sit quietly well... it seemed obvious that he would have taken Hiccup out."

 

" _Dagur_ took him out?" Astrid tensed. She was upset, obviously, the insane freak had just put her friend in danger, but it was more than that. Nott hadn't told Stoick this, if she had Stoick would have been swearing and calling for Dagur's blood.

 

"Maybe," Nott shrugged, seemingly unaware of Astrid's worries. "I am not sure."

 

"Can't you ask the gods about it? One of them that likes Hiccup--or Dagur, one that might be watching them?"

 

Nott tilted her head a little, as if listening to something, and her normally hazy eyes seemed to deepen. Astrid was hopeful and she leaned towards Nott. Part of her expected to hear an unearthly voice from Nott; to hear a deep, male voice that rumbled like thunder, or a woman's that had crackling snaps in it like a fire was burning in her throat. Neither happened. Nott just shrugged as she came back to herself and went back to playing with her teeth.

 

"...That's it? You're not going to tell me _anything_?" Astrid hissed.

 

"There is nothing to tell," Nott drawled and dropped the teeth again so they'd hit one another and the wing bone staff. "Hel looks toward Dagur when he kills. Loki looks to Hiccup when he entertains him. They are doing neither."

 

Astrid wasn't sure what to think for a moment, but slowly she eased back to sit normally again. It wasn't a great answer, but... if she took it with the prediction that nobody was going to die, it at least meant they weren't dead. And if Nott had really reached out to Hel then she would have known better than any other if they had died.

 

"So what are they doing?" Astrid asked, a little more quiet this time. If Nott noticed her she didn't give any indication, she had picked out one of the dragon teeth from her collection and was etching a design into her staff.

 

\- - -

 

The answer to Astrid's question was much more boring than she would have expected. Hiccup and Dagur were still in the cave with Fanghook and Lightwing, and it honestly seemed as though they wouldn't be leaving it anytime soon. The wind was roaring outside louder than ever, and the rain that was dripping over Fanghook's back into the cave was making a puddle under the boys. Hiccup would have been more worried about the water chilling both of them to a dangerous degree, but sitting between the Monstrous Nightmare and the Skrill it was actually fairly warm. Both of the dragons had an impressive internal temperature, and while some dragons were cool or even cold to the touch these two breeds normally weren't. It was possible Fanghook might have been putting off more heat than usual just because he had to face the worst of the storm, but that would only help the boys in the cave where there was little cold and no wind.

 

Hiccup's eyes had slowly adjusted to the dark again, and the splotches of light had finally left his vision. He touched along the ground, not sure if he should be worried about staying in the cave long enough to have to sleep in it. At first he had been worried about finding somewhere relatively soft but now he was just worried about finding a large enough space of floor that wasn't wet. His fingers brushed over the ground and found bits of twig. Hiccup frowned as he picked one of them up. He had almost tossed it aside without much thought, but it felt weird, and as he rolled one end of it between his fingers he figured out why that was.

 

"It's charred," Hiccup muttered and he raised the twig up to see it a little easier, pressing the edge against his palm and dragging it parallel to the scar Nott had made. A black streak followed it and Hiccup smiled a little. "Well, if I had any parchment I could draw."

 

Dagur shifted beside him and leaned in to pick up one of the charred bits of twig. He looked over his too, and Dagur moved his plastered arm up across his knees to press the charred twig to that instead. It had gotten wet again in the heavy rain, but it was holding up well enough for now, and Hiccup leaned in to watch Dagur draw a clumsy dragon. It took Hiccup a moment to figure out it was supposed to be a Night Fury, and when he did he laughed.

 

"Wow, you can't draw with your left hand at all," Hiccup grinned and leaned against Dagur's shoulder.

 

"Nobody can," Dagur huffed from beside him. Hiccup was still and quiet for a moment, but then he reached out to start sketching on Dagur's cast next to the little scribble dragon.

 

"I can," Hiccup said quietly, as he made the curve of a Skrill's wing. He was expecting to be teased, or mocked, and he was already preparing for it.

 

"You draw pretty good," was all Dagur said as Hiccup finished the spikes on the Skrill. Dagur shifted to press his own twig near the Skrill's mouth, and drew jagged lines for lightning as his contribution. They were at least supposed to be jagged, but Dagur wasn't good at writing with his left hand even after having to use just it for this long, so the lightning was wiggly. But Hiccup didn't say anything about that.

 

"Thanks," Hiccup smiled and looked over to Lightwing. "What do you think? Does it look like you?"

 

Lightwing raised her head a little and looked towards him, she knew she was being talked to, but when Hiccup didn't continue she just let out a bark-like squawk and settled back down. Hiccup saw her shift and he ducked quickly, but Dagur didn't see what was coming and he ended up getting the Skrill's wing in his face as she resettled to get comfortable. He swore as he pushed himself up and Hiccup pushed Lightwing's wing up and away from Dagur so he could help him sit. Hiccup touched over the wing, careful of the rips and punctures in it, and he frowned.

 

"Hey, touch this?" he said low to Dagur, and after Dagur was done trying to figure out if Lightwing had bloodied his nose he reached up to touch over the underside of the large wing with Hiccup.

 

"What am I feeling for?" Dagur asked.

 

"The branches, the little ones. Weren't her wings messed up before?"

 

"Oh, that. Yeah, they were. She burned them out when she lit up," Dagur moved to touch along the wing and find Lightwing's side. He sat beside her and leaned against the dragon, and even though she made an unpleasant sound Lightwing didn't try to shake him off. Hiccup was a little more hesitant, but he moved beside Dagur to lean against the Skrill gently with him. Lightwing huffed and wiggled a little, but she settled her wing over them. Under her wing it was even warmer, it was almost hot, but with the cold wind roaring outside reminding him of the storm and his damp clothes Hiccup welcomed it. Fanghook noticed the small gap of space and he scooted closer to them and away from the opening of the cave. Without a dragon against the cave mouth the wind came in and whipped around them. Hiccup winced and wrapped his arms around himself, but after Lightwing squawked her disapproval at the Nightmare for letting in a draft she held her wing down closer to herself and the two boys. It blocked the wind but it made Hiccup and Dagur lean against her a little harder.

 

"Doesn't sound like the storm's letting up at all," Hiccup sighed as he squirmed to get comfortable. Dagur shifted next to him, and then he settled his arm around Hiccup to tug the smaller boy against his side.

 

"It was weird that it did for a while though, wasn't it?" Dagur muttered.

 

"Yeah," Hiccup said, although he was sure Dagur hadn't actually meant for him to answer. Hiccup scraped his metal foot against the ground slowly, just thinking to himself, and he blurted out, "Did you really kill a bear when you were fifteen?"

 

"Huh? Yeah. Why?" Dagur shifted and Hiccup could tell he was looking at him.

 

"Just curious," Hiccup said. Dagur hadn't seemed to want Heather to tell the story before so it had been sitting in the back of Hiccup's mind that maybe it wasn't true. "What's your favorite food?"

 

"Meat," Dagur said, and Hiccup shoved playfully at his side. Dagur chuckled and continued, "Fine, I like mutton."

 

"Like a Skrill," Hiccup smiled and relaxed a little against him. "I like boar."

 

"Yeah?" Dagur grinned at that. "So why did you fuss so much about me bringing you the one I hunted, huh?"

 

"Wasn't exactly ready for everyone to know you were trying to court me."

 

"Pfft, I'm not _trying_ , I _am_ ," Dagur said with all the confidence in the world, and Hiccup couldn't argue against it.

 

"You're going to have to behave yourself, you know," Hiccup moved to put his hand over Dagur's. Even against Lightwing and sharing her warmth both of their fingers were still cold.

 

"What, in this cave?"

 

"In this cave and on Berk," Hiccup said. "You can't chase people around and scare them as much as you used to. Even Snotlout and the twins have to at least pretend to behave. And I think your hut could have a few alterations done to it, make it a little nicer."

 

"Think a Gronkle could chew through the rock? I could build it deeper into the cliff side," Dagur was grinning as he said it and he leaned in to nuzzle against Hiccup's cheek. Hiccup turned his head to kiss him, moving his free hand to the back of Dagur's neck to pull him close and keep him that way. Lightwing shifted against them a little and made a sound to try to get the boys under her wing to settle back down.

 

Dagur was going to stay on Berk, and Hiccup was going to make sure of that.


	36. Chapter 36

They had been in the cave for hours, long enough that Hiccup kept thinking of the food that was being served in the great hall when Dagur's stomach growled beside him. Hiccup was shifting uncomfortably as he waited for the gnawing reminder of how empty his stomach was to go away. It would die down to just an ache if he gave it enough time, and there was the comfort of knowing that when the storm ended there'd likely be food later. Not a lot with Berk eating on it while they were waiting out the storm, but enough to fill him. A thought came to Hiccup and he shifted a little to look at Dagur--able to see him with the dull light that was filtered between the rain and Fanghook's spines.

 

"Did you eat anything last night?"

 

"Not really," Dagur said. There was an edge to his voice, and he either blamed Hiccup for that or he just was cranky from hunger.

 

"We'll get something when the storm clears," Hiccup said. He didn't say anything about it, but he wondered then how long the storm would go for. Would it be the same amount time it had raged on before? He had slept through that first part, but if that was the case they should have been coming up on it soon. Even if there was just another weird lull in the storm it would give them enough time to get back to the great hall.

 

"If it ends soon maybe we'll even be able to make it to supper. I think it's still, uh, today. Yeah, it has to be, it's hard to see the light and stuff, but there's still light, so it's still day, and--"

 

"Wolves are kept on Beo. Tamed ones, we take pups and raise them," Dagur said as he cut Hiccup off.

 

Hiccup paused and looked back to Dagur, "Beo? You mean Berserk?"

 

"Berserk is an island group," Dagur shifted to take his arm back from around Hiccup and he took the smaller boy's hand, turning it over so he could draw rough circles in his palm. "The Heart is in the center of them. It's the one place things grow, trees, deer, rabbits, and bears and wolves. And some other things."

 

"You said nothing grew on Berserk," Hiccup said as he held his hand flat so Dagur could draw on it easier. He made a small sound when Dagur touched over the scar on his palm, and Dagur paused to touch along the smooth skin.

 

"Nothing worth growing. Getting to the Heart is hard, and getting off of it alive is harder. Most Berserkers only go there once or twice, to kill a bear or to bring back a wolf. It proves you're an adult if you can face the dangers there and come back with a prize," Dagur said as he touched over Hiccup's hand slowly. "I wanted the bear, but Bola brought back a wolf."

 

"Why didn't you want a wolf?" Hiccup asked.

 

"My father's always bit me," Dagur answered shortly. He moved to touch along Hiccup's hand again, tracing out a smaller circle and then a faintly more oblong one. "Around it are sea stacks and more islands, but there's only four main ones. Two of them aren't lived on, they're the Eye and the Claw. Claw gets the brunt of the storms, and Eye is mostly useless. It's just a stretch of bare land with a huge lake in it."

 

"Sounds like the place dragons will hatch their babies," Hiccup commented. He wasn't sure if it was Dagur's intention or not but Hiccup had mostly forgotten how hungry he was now that he wasn't trying to talk about supper.

 

"It might've been for that, hatching Skrill," Dagur shrugged against Hiccup's shoulder. "But I don't know for sure. Then there's Beo, that's where everyone lives, for the most part."

 

"'For the most part'?" Hiccup looked to Dagur's fingers to watch as he drew another island in his palm.

 

"There are people who go out, traders to other islands, or in the armada, or they're on the last island," Dagur took his finger from Hiccup's hand, then touched him again to draw the last island. "Wulf. It's where soldiers prepared to go into combat stay until the boat they're assigned to picks them up. Usually it's just for wartime, but I was using it."

 

"You wanted to start a war," Hiccup reminded him and he turned his hand when Dagur was done to curl his fingers around Dagur's. "Why do you keep them separate from their families and the rest of the village?"

 

"It's safer. If they're taking something, herbs or something, to get them ready for fighting they can attack their own people," Dagur said it simply. Hiccup touched over Dagur's hand. In the dim light he couldn't see the small scars from weapons that littered over Dagur's hands and forearms, but he could feel them raised up from the rest of the skin easily. Now he wondered if any of them were bites from the wolves Dagur had mentioned before.

 

"I don't want you taking anything like that anymore," Hiccup said, and the roar of wind outside seemed to agree with him.

 

"I know."

 

"No, I'm serious," Hiccup frowned as he looked back up to Dagur. "You're not taking any more of Nott's concoctions. Not unless I say it's alright first."

 

"Even though you do the same thing to me?" Dagur let out a dark chuckle and Hiccup felt warmth rise to his face in embarrassment.

 

"Yes," the dragon rider said firmly, firm enough that even Fanghook and Lightwing shifted to look at him. "You almost died from it. Nott doesn't get to feed you poison just because it's convenient for her."

 

Dagur was still and quiet for a while. Hiccup started to wonder if he had crossed a line. He wasn't going to back down, though, not from this. After a few minutes Dagur leaned in and kissed him, just a light touch for once, and Hiccup frowned a little in confusion.

 

"Is that you agreeing or you trying to distract me?"

 

"Agreeing," Dagur said, and he sounded... glad. That wasn't what Hiccup expected.

 

"What, just like that?"

 

"Yeah," Dagur said and he kissed him again. "I think I like it when you worry about me."

 

"It's hard not to worry, you psycho," Hiccup smiled a little and tucked up against Dagur with a sigh. "I hate being hungry. It makes me tired. Bored, too, I don't like being bored."

 

"Yeah, me too," Dagur sighed and moved to settle his arm around Hiccup again now that he was done drawing against his palm. Hiccup tucked against him, and he was tempted to just curl up and doze off. He shifted and stifled a yawn against the back of his hand.

 

"I got lost looking for trolls, once. My dad went nuts looking for me," Hiccup said and he smiled a little. It was a funny memory now that it had been a few years. He tucked against Dagur and told him the story, talking just loud enough that the storm outside didn't drown out his voice. About halfway through Hiccup realized that Dagur was breathing deeply and that the arm around his side had relaxed. Dagur had already dozed off, and in a few minutes Hiccup joined him.

 

\- - -

 

When Hiccup woke up his back was stiff, his head ached, his legs were numb, and he immediately wondered how in the world he had managed to sleep through the pains he was dealing with. When he remembered how hungry he had been before his stomach joined in on the painful party and he had to try hard not to keep himself from just flopping over onto his side and whining. He was the only one awake, Lightwing and Fanghook were both sleeping, and the Nightmare had smoke drifting up from his nostrils as the dragon snored contentedly. Dagur was slumped against Lightwing's side, curled up awkwardly, and Hiccup winced just looking at him. He was going to wake up and be just as sore and they couldn't even stretch out their stiff muscles in the small cave. Hiccup sighed as he thought about it, and looked over Fanghook's back with a disgruntled noise. ...But there wasn't anything to see. It was dark, just dark, but there was a faint light and Hiccup could see the edges of branches with it. He got up and touched over Fanghook's back slowly. He wasn't even really that wet anymore, just a little damp, but that would have had more to do with the heat the dragon put off instead of how long ago the rain stopped.

 

With a grunt Hiccup braced against Fanghook's back and hauled himself up, climbing around the large spines and dropping down to the wet ground on the other side. His boot squelched loudly in the mud, but his metal leg went down farther and faster than the leather did, and Hiccup wobbled and nearly fell into the mud entirely. He had to grab onto Fanghook's back, and as he hauled himself up to stand using the Nightmare's spines he could feel the dragon shifting restlessly. It took a bit of time, but after a while he managed to get out of the sinkhole that had formed in front of the cave. The rest of the ground was muddy, but not nearly so bad.

 

Mud aside, the night was actually fairly pretty. The air was clear and the moon was out although the clouds above were threatening to blot it out. Hiccup took the chance to stretch and ease out the pains and the feeling of needles in his foot. His back and joints popped and cracked like he had managed to age sixty years just in that one day. From behind him Fanghook shifted and turned around awkwardly in the cave, and he trudged out to look up at the sky and shake himself off. The Nightmare turned and made a loud sound, not quite a roar but close to it, and the cave made a lazy, answering squawk back. There was a loud grunt--which Hiccup guessed was Dagur getting shaken off of Lightwing's side--and the Skrill toddled out into the clear night with them. There was a metallic clatter, and then Dagur was out of the cave with the rest of them, his metal armor and helmet in his hands.

 

"I think the storm's finally done," Hiccup smiled, and then he looked around. He winced when he really got a good look at their surroundings, or at least as good of one he could with just the light from the half-hidden moon. "At least I hope it's done. I don't think the forest can take much more."

 

The damage to the trees had gotten worse since they'd hidden away. It looked like half of the trees on Berk had been blown over or fallen when their neighbor landed on them. The trees on Berk were sturdy, and tough, but they weren't used to rough winds like those. Just piles and piles of snow getting mounded up on them for too long.

 

"Think we can fly back?" Dagur asked as he touched along Lightwing's back. The Skrill made a happy sound and there was a crackle in the air, and suddenly Dagur yelped and dropped his helmet and armor. Apparently part of Skrill affection was to zap. Either Dagur would have to get used to it or she'd have to be taught humans didn't like that.

 

"I think Fanghook can," Hiccup said as he rubbed over the dragon's nose. "But not Lightwing, so we're going to have to walk with her."

 

Dagur grumbled as he picked up his things, but once the metal was collected again the boys and the Skrill were making their way through the wet, broken forest with Fanghook following them curiously.


	37. Chapter 37

The end of the storm hadn't gone unnoticed in the village. The twins had been the first to burst out of the doors as soon as they were opened, hooting and hollering and singing praises to Thor for the havoc he had wreaked during the storm. Most everyone else, however, were much less enthralled with the damage to their homes. Most people were picking up bits of wood and trying to decide if it was from their home or if it would help to cover the cracks and holes and damage, or finding things they or their neighbors had forgotten to tie down. Now and then someone would comment that the damage from the dragons in the past wasn't nearly so bad as this with everyone around them agreeing. The dragons themselves weren't as used to such damage in their homes. There were Deadly Nadders that were trying to fix holes in roofs by taking broken branches and laying them over the huts. Some Hideous Zippleback had taken to crawling into damaged buildings and peeping out from the holes, and when someone would wander by one of the heads would snake out and make a loud, excited chittering noise to the person.

 

"What is it _doing?_ " Snotlout grumbled as he watched the blue head slowly slink back into its hole, the great orange eyes still peering out and waiting for another passerby.

 

"I think it's trying to tell people there's a hole there," Fishlegs sighed. He shifted the load of wet wood in his arms and frowned at the other boy. "You're _supposed_ to be helping, you know."

 

All Fishlegs got for the comment was Snotlout making a dismissive sound and waving his hand like he was brushing away the comment. Fishlegs glared at him, and then jumped when there was a large hand suddenly wrapped around Snotlout's wrist. The black-haired boy was yanked around with a yelp, and then he was staring up at Stoick the Vast.

 

"Where's Hiccup?" the chief's voice was loud, accusatory, and Snotlout was torn between bristling and barking back at him and shrinking down and away from Stoick's misplaced wrath.

 

"I don't know!" Snotlout said loudly, and it was a tone halfway between anger and panic.

 

"Fishlegs?" Stoick's tone softened just a touch when he turned to face the husky boy, but it wasn't enough to make Fishlegs any less nervous.

 

"We really don't know, sir!" Fishlegs said quickly, and he held the wet wood a little tighter like it was a security blanket. "We haven't found him yet, I don't think he's in the village anywhere."

 

Stoick frowned and looked around. This wasn't the first time he asked about his son, and he let Snotlout go to continue on. If Hiccup wasn't in the village he might have been in the wilderness. The first place Stoick had checked had been the academy, but other than letting out some wet dragons from their pens there wasn't anything to do in there. Most of them had left quickly to shake the water off of themselves and find their owners, only Toothless stayed grounded, laden down with a few Terrors on his back. Most of those had left eventually too, and by the time Stoick had come back to the academy where the Night Fury was still waiting only Sharpshot and Trapjaw remained on him.

 

"Come on, Toothless. We've got to find him," Stoick waved his hand to get Toothless to follow him, and the Night Fury raised up and trotted after the chief. It was a mark of how well Toothless had gotten to know humans that when he came over to Stoick's side he nudged his head under the chief's large hand. He knew Stoick was upset, and he wanted to help. Stoick couldn't help the small smile and he patted the shiny black scales.

 

"Aye, we'll find him," Stoick said, and he managed to sound a little gentler at that. Without the loud, demanding boom in his voice he sounded far more worried than confident, though.

 

\- - -

 

It didn't take too long for Hiccup to finally show up, but by the time he did there were a few people who had spread the rumor that the poor future chief had perished in the storm. So when he made his way to the edge of the village to look at the damage there was a shriek that nearly made the scrawny boy jump out of his boot.

 

"What?! What is it?" Hiccup yelped, and he looked behind him. He had worried that a Skrill in the village right after an awful storm would startle anyone who was out and told Dagur to keep Lightwing away until he was sure everything would be alright. Lightwing hadn't come out after him, though, and he looked back to where the scream had come from.

 

"You--the twins said you were dead!" Fishlegs yelped as he pointed at Hiccup.

 

"That was nice of them," Hiccup grumbled. Fishleg's yelling had attracted attention, and Ruffnut and Gustav peered around half of a broken door.

 

"Heeey," Gustav frowned and looked up at Ruffnut. "You said he was dead."

 

"He is dead," Ruffnut said with enough conviction that Hiccup had the urge to poke himself and make sure he was still there.

 

"I'm clearly not dead," Hiccup said firmly. Gustav seemed convinced and came out from the door, but Ruffnut didn't.

 

"Careful! He's a ghost, he's come to drag you to Hel with him," Ruffnut called out after the little kid, and she tried to stifle her laughter behind her hands when Gustav looked back at her with a terrified expression.

 

"No I'm not! Listen, where's my dad?" Hiccup looked to Fishlegs as he asked it, really not wanting to have to argue if he was alive or not at the moment.

 

"Uhm, I'm not sure," Fishlegs frowned some and put his hand on his chin as he thought. "He's sort of been everywhere. He's been looking for you."

 

"Can you get him?" Hiccup glanced back to the broken forest. Fanghook and Lightwing were camouflaged in the wreckage surprisingly well, but since Hiccup knew what he was looking for he could spot them after a moment.

 

"Oh, uh, yeah. Sure," Fishlegs hefted his armload of wood to his shoulder and started back to the village, glancing back at Hiccup as he went.

 

"Why can't you go get him?" Ruffnut grinned.

 

"I just..." Hiccup made a face, trying to think of something that wouldn't send the twin off into the woods to poke the dangerous and distressed dragon there. "I just need to stay here for right now."

 

"You're not allowed back into the world of the living," Ruffnut pretended to sound sad by that, but she failed miserably and giggled at the end. "Are the gods waiting to bring you back?"

 

"Nobody's waiting to bring me anywhere," Hiccup grumbled.

 

Ruffnut grinned wide and held her hands to either side of her mouth, and yelled as loud as she could towards the woods, " _Did you escape, Hiccup?!_ "

 

Almost as soon as she finished there was a sudden roar, and then a scream alongside it. Fanghook had roared first at the loud yell, and Lightwing screamed with him. The effect was eerie and Hiccup was tense, he worried that after that then Gustav might really believe Ruffnut and run off to tell the rest of the village about him being dead. He didn't think Gustav would break into a run right _towards_ the horrid noise, and so Hiccup hadn't been prepared to grab the little boy as he bolted past him.

 

"Gustav!" Hiccup yelled and turned at the boy raced towards the woods. Ruffnut was howling with laughter and urging Gustav on to meet the gods hidden in the forest. There weren't any gods, but Fanghook clambered out of the woods and over the fallen trees to greet his tiny rider. Gustav clung happily to Fanghook's snout, and the Nightmare picked the boy up easily from the ground, grumbling out a happy sound at seeing his young owner. Hiccup relaxed a little at that, Gustav just recognized Fanghook's roar and was excited--and then Hiccup tensed as Lightwing trudged out of the forest by the same path the Monstrous Nightmare had taken. He glanced back to Ruffnut, hoping she wouldn't notice, but she had. Her face was alight with the kind of joy that only the promise of absolute devastation could bring, and her smile just seemed to get wider when Dagur climbed over the fallen tree to chase Lightwing down and keep her by his side.

 

"It's a _Skrill_ ," Ruffnut cooed as she clasped her hands together. "It's going to destroy _everything_."

 

"No, no she's not," Hiccup said quickly. "She's hurt and she needs help--and she's nice, see? Nicer than the other one, everything's going to be--"

 

The word 'fine' turned into a weird whoosh of air as Hiccup was scooped up and squeezed tight enough that he thought his ribs were all creaking. He had to wriggle and squirm and pat Stoick's side to finally get his dad to release his grip enough so Hiccup could breathe. Hiccup was put down too quickly--he felt like he had been dropped--and he stumbled as he took a deep breath.

 

"Where have ye been?" Stoick nearly roared as loud as Fanghook had. "You went running off into the worst storm Berk's seen in nearly a decade, do you have any idea how worried I've been? Anything could have happened to you."

 

"I'm alright, dad," Hiccup finally gasped, and he straightened up. "I--I needed to go out."

 

Stoick opened his mouth, about to ask why, but when he glanced up he didn't have to. The Skrill standing there watching them both was enough of an explanation. One of the most dangerous dragons known, and it was standing beside Dagur with the boy's hand on the dragon's back.

 

"I heard a dragon screaming in the storm," Hiccup said quickly, and while he started with the truth he didn't keep to it. "So I woke Dagur up, I thought I'd need help. Her wings are torn up, she needs help, and look."

 

Hiccup managed to avoid Stoick's hand when the chief tried to pull his son back, and he hurried over to the Skrill. Hiccup put his hands under the frill on Lightwing's head and rubbed, getting a happy little sound from her and reaching down to rub under her neck with his other hand.

 

"See? She's nice, not like the other one," Hiccup said. Toothless had come up behind Stoick and was watching Hiccup and the Skrill closely now. The dragon rider hoped that Toothless wouldn't just attack, and slowly the Night Fury crept closer to the Skrill. Toothless kept low to the ground, but then he suddenly arched up and put his side to Lightwing with his wings flared. Lightwing stood up as high as she could and raised her wings out, both of the dragons were trying to look bigger and more impressive to scare the other one off, it wasn't a good sign--but suddenly Toothless relaxed his stance. He walked toward Lightwing a little more normally, and even if the Skrill was obviously still worried she lowered back down too. Toothless sniffed at Lightwing's face, then moved around Dagur to nose at her wing carefully, and the Night Fury licked over the rips and tears in the Skrill's membrane slowly. Lightwing made an uncomfortable and unhappy sound but she stayed still, and Toothless' sticky spit seemed to be helping the damage in the wings hold together a little easier as it coated the wounds.

 

"She needs our help, even Toothless knows it," Hiccup said, still reeling at the way Toothless was taking care of a strange dragon, but it was a good sign and he wasn't going to let it go. "She has to stay."

 

"There is no way you can keep a Skrill," Stoick said firmly.

 

"I can't, but Dagur can," Hiccup said and he looked to the red haired boy. "He knows more about Skrill than anyone else, he knows how to take care of her, and look, she likes him."

 

"There is _no way­--_ "

 

"Dad, please!" Hiccup cut Stoick off, and he was surprised at himself for doing it. "You said it yourself, this was the worst storm Berk's had in a decade, and it brought a _Skrill_ during the one time we have someone who knows how to take care of them. She belongs here. They both do."

 

Hiccup held his breath, he was sure there was no way Stoick would agree. There was no way in the world. But Stoick looked from Hiccup, down to the Skrill, then to Dagur. His eyes were narrowed when he looked over the deranged boy, but he slowly and very slightly nodded. Hiccup was sure he imagined it for a moment.

 

"Alright," Stoick said, low and menacing even when he was allowing the Skrill and the berserker to stay. "But if I see _one_ thing to make me regret this, they're gone. The both of them."

 

Hiccup laughed in relief and Dagur grinned wide, showing too many teeth and looking too smug. Dagur could really stay on Berk. All it took was for Thor to send a dragon that could command lightning.


End file.
